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ROOMS OF THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

OP " The Coxstitgtioxai. Uxion Party," 

357 J) Street, Washington^ July 31, 1SG1. 

A full exposition of Mr. Bell's course on the Slavery qnestion, from the comraeace- 
ment of the Abolition-petition agitation in 183 j down to the termination of his Congrcs- 
sioner career in 1859, has been prepared br a distinguished gentleman of Tennessee, 
and recently published at Nashville, by the Union Committee of that State. 

This document the National Executive Committee has republished, and now presents 
to the people of the United States. It ■will be found to contain an authentic expression, 
from his own speeches and votes, of Mr. Bell's opinions on the Slavery question in all 
its aspects, and will be sufficient, of itself, to enable every speaker and writer who pro- 
poses to take an active part in^the Presidential canvass, to silence any man who may 
charge Mr. Bell with ever having enunciated a principle or advocated a doctrine ie 
regard to Slavery, which should render him unworthy of the confidence and support of 
his fellow-citizens, in any section of our country, for the highest ofiice in their gift. 
By order of the Committee : 

ALEXANDER R. BOTELER, Ckairman. 



JOHN BELL"S RECORD can be procured by application to the National ExecatiTe 
Committee at Washington, D. C. Price per hundred, $2.50. 



W. n. Moore, Print(r_. Washinstwi, D. C. 



t-^ 



TO THE 3PUBLIO. 

In the outset of the political canrasa for the Presidency just commenceil, it is thought 
important by the undersigaed, who are the Central Union Committee of Tennessee, that 
a fair presentation should be made of the political opinions of Mr. Bell, bearing upon the 
most important issues now before the country. With this vie\v the Editor of the " Na- 
tional Union" has carefully collated and compiled from his public speeches, acts and 
■writings, such extracts as might most fully exhibit him in his character of statesman and 
politician. With his private life (tbougU in all respects unblemished) the public has not 
so much to do. 

In his public life, as thus exhibited, we think he has shown firmness, forbearance, 
moderation, foresight, far-reaching tliought, and in a high degree the spirit of concilia- 
tion and compromise. He has ever shown himself a son of the Union, a Representative 
of the Nation, of comprehensive mind and of catholic spirit. See what he has done : 
hear what he has said. By his acts he is ready to be judged. 

EDWIN H. EWING, 
NEILL S. BROWN, 
ALLEN A. HALL, 
JOHN" LELLVETT, 
P. W. MAXEY, 
HORACE H. HARRISON 

Committee, 
Nashville, Tenn., July^ I860. 



IVE li. BELL. 

Mr. Bell entered the public service, as a Representative in Congress, at the ?.%b of 
thirty-one years. It was in 1827, towards the close of the Presidential term of John 
Quincy Adams, and shortly preceding the election of Gen. Jackson to the Presidency. 
During the marked and eventful administration of the latter, many great and exciting 
questions arose and were decided, for good or evil. All the strong passions of our na- 
ture were roused and brought into action by the greatest talent and address on both 
sides, and the very fabric of the government was shaken and convulsed to its centre. 

Though acting, throughout this exciting period, with a party, with the principles of 
■which he iu the main agreed, and to which, so far as principle was concerned, he was 
ever faithful^ yet Mr. Bell was at no time so blindly attached to the one party or opposed 
to the other, as to be insensible to the mot^'es which probablj' actuated both. More 
intent upnn watching and noting the peculiar tendencies of our system of government — 
the dangers which most beset it — the points most exposed to attack, and those to be 
particularly guarded — more intent upon the solution of these problems, than zealous in 
the success of every party movement, he, at times, incurred the censure of some of his 
party friends for what appeared to them indifference to the interests of " the party." 

The truth is, that the qualities of Mr. Bell's mind, and the views which, at a very early 
period of his public life, he formed of the nature and tendencies of our government, and 
of the duties of American statesmen, utterly disquxlifi'd him for ever becoming the 
blind follower of any party leader, however great and distinguished, or a successful party 
leader himself, if the condition of such leadership were a ready compliance on his part 
•with all the dictates of mere party expediency. 

What these characteristic qualities of J\Ir. Bell's mind are — what his views of the tend- 
encies and dangers pertaining to our system of government and of the duties of Ameri- 
can statesmen — and what the principles which have governed him throughout the whole 
of his long public life, can he made very clearly to appear by reference to a few passages 
in his political record : 



MR. BELL IN 1829. 

His Opinions as to the safest mode of construing the Constiluiion—the Principle of Compromi$t 

Tlie lolluvviiig p.issage occurs ia a speech adivered by Mr. Bell in the House of Uep- 
reseatatives, on the 10th of February, 1829, oa a bill for the preservation and repair oJ 
the Cumberland road : 

" While I am upon the .subject of this diversity of opinion which exists as to the safes* 
mode of construing the Constitution, I hope it will not be considered improper or pre- 
sumptuous in me to make a remark or two in regard to the two great parties which dj. 
vide this country upon all questions of this kind. They had their origin as far back aa 
the formation of the Federal compact. Their foundations were laid in the deference ol 
sentiment which prevailed at that time, as to the wisdom of the provisions of that in- 
strument. They are, in s!»ort, the fruit of that discord of opinions and feelinn-s without 
acompromiseof which at the time, we should have had no Constitution at all. One 
opinion was, that sufficient power was not conferred upon the Federal Government to 
assure the quiet, hnppiness, and prosperity of the country; while the opinion of others 
was, that the power actually conceded would prove too strong for the preservation of 
liberty. The most zealous and active of the partizans on both sides, never abandoned 
their creeds ; both parties became sufficiently powerful to propagate their opinions • and 
as one or the other predominated in the administration of the Government, a tincture o( 
the favorable notions of each was infused into its measures. Botli have so'u"!it by con- 
struction, to make the Constitution what thev wished it to lie in fact : the'^one by en- 
larging Its powers beyond its letter and spirit, the other by narrowing them down to the 
standard of their wishes. Although it will be seen that I know and feel whnt party has 
had the ascendency for several years past, and whe-e the great danger is, yet it may be 
said that both these great parties are in some degree hostile, not to liberty, not to theii 
country, but to the Constitution as it is written ; to that instrument whichVc are bound 
by the most sacred obligations to support ; to that instrument, to which, for one I am 
disijosed to cling, with or without such modifications as may be elfected by amendment 
IJoth the great parties to which I have alluded, seem to me to have abandoned the prin- 
viple of compromise. I would adhere to it as the only principle by which the States were 
able to agree upon any compact, and without an acquiescence in which, we arc not dec- 
lined long to enjoy the blessings of the one adopted. He, sir, who shall renounce the' ev^ 
tremes of both these great parties, as dangerous to order and union ■ he, who, by his talents 
experience and weight of character shall succeed in placing himself a< the head of a great 
constitutional party, and shall become the advocate of the administration of theGovern- 
ment upon the principle of compromise, as it w.-.s understood to have operated in the for- 
mation of the Constitution, will deserve the highest gratitude of his country " fSee 
Cop.gressioniil Debates, vol. 5, page 349.] " J \- 

It cannot but be regarded as a most extraordinary coincidence, that more than thirty 
years alter the utterance of these opinions, •' a great Constitutional party", should rise 




J , , , I , 1-.- -. -ompromise, 

understood to have operated in the formation of the Constitution !' 



MR. BELL IN 1832. ^ 

His Speech on the Tariff, June 8, 1832— .4 Plea for the Union— Duty of a Representative.. 

With the dangers which threatened, the Union in 1832, in consequence of the intense 
discontent which prevailed, in the southern States, and p.arlicularly in South Carolina 
at the working of the protective tariff, many of our renders are acquainted. To this 
discontent and its threatened consequences, Mr. Clay adverted in his opening speech on 
the subject ofUhe tariff, in the Senate, during the session of that ^iear. In'allu^ion to 
menaces of disunion which had been heard from South Carolina, he entreated " the 
patriotic people" of that State " to pause, solemnly pause ! and contemplate the frightful 
precipice which lay before them." " To advance, was to rush on certain and inevitable 
disgrace and destruction." The danger to the Union, however, did not Ue, he thou^'ht 
on the side of persistence in the American system, but in that of its abandonment! 
Gould It be exi)ected that two-thirds, if aot three-fourths of the people of the United 



State?, Tvoulii consent to the destruction of a policy believed to be indispensably neces- 
sary to llieir prosperity? Let New England, the West, and the Middle States, together 
with the !nan;moth Stales of New York and Pennsylvania, become firmly persnaded that 
their industry was paralyzed, and their prosperit}- blighted, by the enforcement of the 
British volouial system, under the delurive name of free trade— let them feel that they 
were the victims of a mistaken policy, and despair of any favorable change, and ''then, 
in'^lced, might we tremble for a conlinuancc of the Union." 

"flere," in the language of an eminent tfUesman, now deceased, " was an appalling 
pieture presented : dissolution of the Union on either hand, and one or the other of the 
a!t*-rnatives obliged to be taken. If persisted in, the opponents to the protective system 
at the South were to muke the dissolution : if abandoned, its friends at the North were 
to do it !" 

With this brief reference to the condition of the country at the time, we shall the 
better appreciate the course of Mr. Dell, as a representative ^u Congress, at that perilous 
crisis: 

"This debate," said Mr. Bell, " it seems to me, was not commenced in the most tortu- 
nate spirit, nor has it been conducted altogether in the manner which the uatiiic and 
iiitriusic delicacy and difhculty of the subject demanded. A disposition has been mani- 
fested, and senti.ments avowed by some gentlemen, equally unexpected and abhorrent to 
mv feelings. It has been openly attemjjted to jirejudice this question by holding it up 
as a contest between free labor and slave labor ; between laboring States and those whose 
eiti:2ens, it is alleged, do not labor. It is openly and vauntingly proclaimed, by one gen- 
tleman, to the complaining sections and interests, that, if they shall not be content to 
a^iide l')y what he is pleased to call the established policy of the country, '' they may 
tiikc the consequences !'' Sir, I am no alarmist, but when I reflect upon all I see and 
liear connected with this subject, when I look to the growing distractions of the country, 
I fo^t myself justified in designating the sum of what I shall say upon this question, as 
a: plea for the Union ! Upon such a subject — upon an occasion so interesting — I shall not 
consider myself as the representative of any particular section or interest ; I shall not 
consider myself either as a tariff or anti-tarilf man. I claim to be considered and to be 
heard as a representative of the whole country, most anxiously concerned for its perma- 
Bcnt proS;)entv, its stability and glory. I claim to be heard as the advocate of higher 
Hifercsts than 'those whichare the immediate subject of considfration. It is no longer a 
question whether the farmer shall get seventy-live cents or one dollar and twenty-five 
cents a bushel tor his wheat; whether the wool grower shall receive forty or seventy- 
fi"ve cents a pound ibr his wool ; whether the planter shall get eight or twelve cents a 
pound for his cotton ; or whether the manufacturer shall make twelve and a half or 
tsventy per cent, upon his capital. The interests of wool and of woolens, of cotton, cf 
iS-on, of .'^ugar, and of the whole range of domestic products, sink info insignificance in 
Cdm])arison with those which now force themselves upon our attention, and claim our 
giiardiiin care and protection. The interests of domestic peace, of free Government, of 
liberty itself, are involved in this question." 

STATE OF THE UNION IN IS.T^. 

" What then, Mr. Chairman, is the state of the Ilnioii? Tn a time of profound peace 
* * ^- * iu the midst of the greatest abundance cf all the necessariesand 
O'en comforts of life, that God in his providence ever decreed to be the rewards of virtue 
aaid industry" " discontents, jealousies, and rancorous sectional hates have arisen and 
are encouraged. Fostered by these unhappy feelings, dis^ifTection to the Government 
ftself m;it:es a slow but steady progress in the hearts of thousands of honest and patri- 
otic citizens. A want of confidence in the mutual justice and forbearance of brethren of 
flie same politicol family manifests itself. Confidence in our system, consequently, in 
every quarter, has diminished and is diminishing. Men's minds are set to work in new 
scd unwonted channels, and upon new theories of Government, for a country of such a 
divers- ity of pursuits and interests; upon theories thought to be exploded, or rendered 
useless, by the practical operation of the established government, until lately. The value 
of the Union itself, its date, and the consequences of its disruption, begin to be tolerated 
and canvassed in private discourse— nay, in public debate in this Hall, when, but as yes- 
terday in the period of our existence as an independent people, to breathe such discourse 
wjauld have been thought little less than downright blasphemy." 

CoiuUiion of Parties in 1832— Extreme doctrines of the infallihilily of the Supreme Court on 
the one hand and of Nullification on the other. 
«'It is now more than forty years," continued Mr. Bell, "since the adoption of the 
Constitution, and has the contest between the original elements of party, as I have de- 
scribed them, ceased ? I answer, no 1 The war between them, acquiring new vigor from 



the infusion of selfish, politicaL and mercenary calculations on buth side., ^^^. '^t ^ J 
moment, reached its highest and moat critical juncture. In some sections the whole 
Tounu-y is in a state of mental conflagration. In the intensity of the coufl.ct between 
the extremes, the leaders on the side of the Republican or vanquished party-for van- 
qni.hed they arc-cry- out, and departing from Ihe spirit of the Conslitulion, proclaim iJmr 
determinatwn to accept no compromise; while, on the other side, the v.ctors, '''^ ";;W|ty- 
that majority which holds the destiny of this country in the.r hands, more <;"1°^. ^^Q"'*^! J 
determined, but with less excuse or reason, announce their ^^^'^f'""'"^^.^'; V^" ,>;,f;J 
nothiuo.? Yes, sir, in the face of an imploring country, the majority proc aini that lather 
than o^nejotor tittle of the powers they exercise or the ^^'^'^^^'' ^^ I?^2:£^ 
pass away, they arc ready to stand the hazard of the entire over hrow of he ^^hole fabi c 
of our policy aid of our glorious Republic. We, too, they proc aim, will make no com- 
promist, and ^et the minority take the consequences!' '^i'^V' '^ n^f^rlt! ?1 . 
who control the issues of all that is dear to the patriot, and who are able to ^'C -ate H^e 
pages of the future history of this country. It is not surprising that in a contest ^^ hich 
Eaces the repose of the country, the leaders, on both sides, should star new and un- 
tried theories, for the purpose of effecting their respective objects. Accordingly ^e find 
that on the side of the victors, in ordei to secure the benefits of their conquest lore^er 
the doctrine of the infallibility of the Supreme Court is avowed as the only means of 
securin.^ the stability of the Government. On the side of the vanquished or Republican 
party, the doctrine of nullification has been invented, and is proclaimed as the only 
FnfaH ble mode of effecting the same object. These arc the tests to which all question, 
of power under the Federal Government are proposed to be brought lor final dec sion 
But is it not manifest that both these newly invented doctrines are eqmuly hostile to tho 
spirit of the Constitution ? Not to the Union, for both parties I veri y ^^ l'--^' J^^^.f '^^^^'^ 
to the Union, but to a Union upon their oun iermsl Is it not manifest ^^^.^ ^.l^^^ '^^^^JJ^- 
test between two extremes, equally distant from the true medium point ot the Constitu- 
tion? 

Importance to the country of a Middle or Moderate party. -Moderation and Compromise the 
only salvation for the Country. 

"Mr Chairman, in the almost interminable waste of hope which lies before us, there 
is one bright spot to which the patriot may direct his eye. in some confidence that relief 
mav come In all the past civil strifes and revolutions which have agitated this country 
and sometimes threatened its institutions, there has always been a moderate party of 
sufficient strenoth and influence to turn the balance between the extremes, and to miprese 
upon the actioS of the Government some portion of that s^nilo^moderatiori and Con>2y^o- 
ni^e ivhich are characteristic of the constitution itself This m.dule or moderate party is 
never in much esteem with the extremes on either side. It is said to be composed of 
men who are more disposed to submit to oppression, than to preserve unimpaired the 
ri-hts of freemen. Still, to this party I choose to cling; and we shall see who^N^ll proAO 
the stoutest defenders of the liberties of the country. This party has always fonnd its 
support in the good sense and moderation of the great body of the people. It has, in 
fact owed its existence to the sound practical judgment and good feeling which, I tru.t, 
not;ilhsfanding the vices of the time, still constivute the leading traits in the American 
population. It has been the sound, nncorrnpted sentiment ot the great body o the 
American people, which has always, heretofore, stepped in between the combatant lead- 
ers and brought them to terms of compromise. It is this public senliment_ which has 
still caused the Republican party, when in power, to become less rigid in their cons ruc- 
tion of the Constitlition, than when in opposition. It is the same public sentiment which, 
when the federal party, being in power, have indulged their enlarging propensities oo 
far either displaced them, or restrained their nction within reasonable im.ts. I liur^ 
there vet rem uns a portion of that pure and nnaffected public sentiment to preserve the 
couutiT from the confusion and discord which now menace it The contest may become 
even more violent. What to-day is only a breeze of popular discontent, may to-morrovr 
swelTntoaveiT tornado, threatening to overthrow and prostrate in the dust all the 
sacred edifices dedicated to freedom on this side of the Atlantic!. But still my trust 13 
in the solidity of their foundations." 

The duties of American statesmen. 

"To calm " said Mr. Bell, "the rising elements of discontent; to assuage the fcTcrish 

Evmutoms of the body politic, is the business of every American statesman. An Amen- 

can .a man 1 Who and what arc the duties and attributes of an American statesman 

aUhi^^dxV? They are, or they ought to account themselves the high-pnests of hberty. 



6 

admiDistering her rights for the benefit of her disciples in everv coufltrr; for thi. hvcr^ 

IL^'J:^'" ' *";?-/^"- ^T "" ""''°"'^- ^'^"^•^^ '-^ ^1^^ I'ig'^ «"d noble calling c'f an Ameri 
can statcsinan. "tVhat >s the first great care of an American si'Me^nr. J To ,TseZ 
cncrfree vMtron, I will not go into an argument to show that the onlyeffcctireZTeof 
dischargrn;, tias great trnstu to preserve and cherish the Union. Th.at is an axion ^ Xmlvl 

ZZ ' ,"■"'*■ '"' ^'"'"'•^' ^^^^^'^"^'^-l to be overthrown bj the theories'ot a;y ne«- 

professors .n he sc.ence however distinguished for genius and talent... \Vha?b th« 
next great duty «t American statesmen ? So to administer their offices as to secure com! 
fort and happmess to the greatest possible number of the citizens of this free couX 
These are the whole law and the prophets for the guidance of our statesmen The "aJ^ 
the sum of all the commandments in the book of our political faith." ^^'e.earc 

Majonities and MinorHie,-IIe counsels mutual concession for the safety of the Uni<m. 

"I maintain that each representative is, by the theory of the Government a reore- 

sentative of the whole people of the United States; that the principle of a r^presentaEon 

by States or districts was adopted for convenience in making the sek^'ln ot rTrc sent? 

ives by the peop e, and for the purpose of securing to the Nationa 1 e'is •! re t> a"t 

now edge o the interests, sentiments, and condition of the whole countn" w h ^an 

be only had through a representative chosen by each small section or district The in^ 

teres ts and conditions of each section are entitled to be considered and respected in h^ 

'f:!f "'/"'':'"'"''; ^"' ""'^'^ tl'^ proportion which they bear to the S ette in^ 

terests and sections It may and often must happen in the c'areer of this GWrmnent 

without any concert or design, that a majority, either hir-e or' sm.ll .1v,ll f. 1 • ,i ' 

Sf "-tf t T''' ^^'^ ^'^"^^"'^^^■- the'covei^melu in ^elS ;.e t h ; wi n! 
t^erests, withou a due regard to the interests and condition of sections represenreS br 
the minon y; but this is an evil which is necessarily incidental to all socic ies and aU 
governments, grea tor small. But, sir, when, in this country, a major tyo he ^epre 
sentatives of the difi-erent sections in Congress shall admit the principle amJ cs abSIt 
in practice, that it is their right and privilege to consult the iiteres nd pXi u^ 
the sections and interests which they represent exclusive! v, from that momen ttlfe acUoa 
of he Government becomes vicious and tyrannical. Congress can no lon4r 1 e lieS u^ 
.^^1 oH -'^'t!' T"''' '" ^■''^'^ '^' ''^'''' ^"^ ^•^^^'•^^ts of Uie whole people my oJ 

S.ri \ Government ceases to fulfil the ends of its creation, and the pro cribed 

a°fab "IheTeTf "T '^V'^T'^' '' '''''''' '''''' ^"^-''^-^ - any minn; they 
are able. 1 here is no example m history of the submission of a minority under s ch 
circnms tanccs. when it had the power of redress. Whether those in the m no ity thaU 
be able to redress the grievances in any way, always depends upon circnm taSs In 
he present case. I know not whether it is to be regarded as good or evil fortune that 
the proscribed interests and sections lie in a compact form, constituting manvcontb.u 
ous States, giving them facilities for redress which no other' circnmstanJes could aS 
If the present action of the Government is to continue with unabated energy and vw' 
1 1 s surely fortunate that the means of redress are convenient and acceptS to tl cTn ' 
pressed interests ; but if under the smart of temporary injustice the bands whchbnd the 
Union .hall be precipitately sundered, all earth may well deplore andlu e the fatx? 
feciht.es for so instant and fatal a remedy. I trust there is no settled purpose in anv 
portion of the oppressed sections, to avail themselves of the means of el4" w° k^ theJ 
may have at their disposal ; but I conjure those .vho sway the power of the House 'erT 
ously and earnestly to consider the alternative of modifying a system of poLy st^st'a ned 
upon the principle I have described, or of beholding, soonfr o/later the Un on brol "„ 
up .nd t i,s last and noblest sanctuary of freedom polluted and destiCd trn. I do 
of 0?. "f?ah's 't "fo"? '" -^'--'-^-oice upon tfis subject at this alarming nctur^ 
ot our .ittaiis 1 speak in the sincerity and with the fervency which belonrrTn the ren 
resentatives of a portion of the people of this country, who, so far from havlno any di^' 
position to countenance disunion, regard such a catastrophe as the last a„d Jire 
calamity which fate can have in store for their country, short o? ab oluS sKverjTnd 
oppression But they cannot close their eyes to the dangers whic' sta e then in the 
foce, and hey invoke, through me, their brethren everywhere-of eve y Jua ter of ihl 

In the same speech from which the fore-oing extracts are taken Air Bell said the 
•'immediate and practical question^' before Congress and the co^n y was as lo '' he 
J.yr.. ./-..ro^,. ,.. ,dnch ought to be given to manufactures, under 11 the cii-cmsHncs 
«f he country '-whether the then existing tariff system should be "enforc i whh Sr 
or in spirit of concession and moderation." Bclleviu"- th- svstpm tn lv,vl w ' 11 
te an extreme, and see ing, as he said, that it had << b"en the m Tf bHno . .' h^crntry 
U> the very verge ot disunion," he expressed his "strong conviction of Th^. necessir^, [J 



.the existing state of the country, of modifying it." It was modified by the celebrated 
Compromise Tariif Act, which was passed very shortly afterwards. When, however, 
under the practical workings of this act, the degree of protection afforded by it, fell 
below " a just and expedient standard," Mr. Bell favored the policy of raising it to that 
standard. 

Extremes of Party in 1832 — Nullification and the Force Bill. 

Three 3'ears afterwards, in his celebrated speech at Vauxhall, Nashville, referring to 
the excesses to which the protective system had been carried — to Nullification which 
grew out of those excesses, and to the Force Bill which grew out of Nullification, Mr. 
Bell said : 

" I have not yet shown how it happened, that the questions which have arisen within 
the last ten years came to excite so unusual a degree of heat and violence. Need I at- 
tempt this seriously? Whatl have we so soon forgotten, that while the party to which 
we belong [the Jackson party :] while it was contending for the mastery, aud even for 
years afterwards, in some of the large States in which the contest was most fierce and 
doubtful, each party, one in order to gain, and the other to maintain, party ascendencvj 
and both utterly regardless of all other consequences, contended which should go farthest 
in the support of both branches of the American system, the tariff and internal improve- 
ment? In all history, there is not a more striking and characteristic instance of the 
absurd and headstrong spirit of partj'. In regard to the tariff, all men of unprejudiced 
feelings and judgment must have seen, and did see, from the first, that the result would 
be either a re-action which might reduce it below a just and expedient standard, or that 
the Union itself would be severed. The immediate consequences of the extremes into 
which the supporters of the tariff, in one section of the Union, were driven, in a struggle 
for political power, was to excite an extreme antagonist action in another section. The 
leaders in the anti-tariff region sought'to counteract the excesses to which they saw the 
protective policy was likely to be carried by a combination in its favor, between both 
political parties to the North and East, thought it necessary to proceed to equal or greater 
extremes in order to protect the interests of the minority to the South. This state of 
parties gave birth to Nullification, by which the projectors of it sought to equalize the 
action of the Government, by questioning the validity of its regular enactments, and 
seeking to set them aside upon the authority^ of a separate State and local constructioH 
of the Federal power. Before a sufficient time was allowed for reason to resume her 
sway, in correcting the excesses into which the spirit of party had hurried both sides, so 
many political interests, so many personal views and resentments commingled in the 
strife, that an extreme remedial action [the Force Bill] of the Government itself became 
a necessary expedient, in the judgment of moderate and unprejudiced men, though involving ia 
its issues civil war, disunion, and a total overthrow of the Constitution.'' 

MR. BELL IN 1835. 
Extracts from a Speech delivered at Vauxhall, Nashville, on the 23c? of May, 1835. 

EXCESSES OF PAUTV. 

" It will be a circumstance, iVi my course, to which, as long as I live, I can revert with 
conscious satisfaction, that I have ever opposed what appeared to me to be the excesses 
in the party with which I have acted, with all the influence 1 could employ, and in the 
only way in which I could do so without injury to its principles. While I have studied 
to make myself useful, I have never set myself up as a leader of /Ac party, or of a party." 

Moderation and a Spirit of Conciliation indispensably necessary in the Administration of the\ 

Government. 

" I have said that there was nothing in the questions which have arisen within the last, 
eight or ten years in this country, necessarily productive of the extremes to which they 
have been carried. I re-afBrm the proposition. Nor is there, from my observation, in 
the federative feature of our system, or in the extent of territory over which it oper«,tes, 
or even in the institution of slavery itself, as established in some of the States, taken 
together, or separately considered, which essentially impairs the prospects of harmony, 
duration, and a prosperous action of our system. If we except the danger to the local 
society into which slavery is admitted, there is no peculiarit}- in our condition from^ 
which we have anything to fear, except in connection tcith the designs of bad men, who have, 
or may acquire, an ascendency in one or the other of the two parties, which m.ust ever 
have a decided influence upon the action of the Government. Even, then, eorneafthesBt 



'8 

peculiarities are useful rather than injurious. They present formidable obstacles to the 
consoliilation of power in any one set of men, or any party, founded upon unTvortliy or 
bad juotivcs and principles. As long as moderatio.n and the spiuit of coNcn.iATioJf 
shall preside over the administration of the federal government, any faction which shall 
seek to divide the Union, either by rousing a sense of injustice and inequality in the 
action of the govA^rnmetit in one section, or by seizing upon the delicate and inflammable 
, question of slavery in the other, can always be shorn of its strength and defeated in its 
oliject, without the slightest convulsive sensation in our system," 

The Real Danger to our System of Government. 

"The real danger to our system, as in every other system of free Government, is a 
violent party action of the government itself. A proscribed arid disregarded minority, re- 
spectable for its numbers, its talents— and even for the virtues of many of its members, 
for virtue is never the exclusive attribute of any one party — such a minority .is always 
tempted, in resentment for its real or irafiginary wrongs, in redress for its violated privi- 
leges as American citizens, in being deprived of ail actual participation in the govern- 
ment of the country — compelled to obey laws and be the subjects of a policy, prescribed 
and directed exclusively by their opponents ; such a minority. I repeat, is constantly 
tempted to seize upon every vexed and irritating question, to make common cause with 
the spirit of fanaticism itself in an effort to right, or at all eveu'«, to avenge their inju- 
ries. This is the dang?r of our system." 



MR. BELL AXD THE SLAVERY QUESTION~1S40. 

ABOLITION PETITIONS. 

The reader will note the diSerencc between rejecting the prci/er of a petition, and re- 
jecting or refnsing to receive the petition itself. When, in 1700, three years afler the 
adoptFon of the Constitution, the Society of Friends, of Pcfinsylvania, forwarded a peti- 
tion to Congress praying its interference with the African slave trade, the petition was 
received, although it contained an unconstitutional request — Congress being expressly 
prohibited by the Constitution, for twenty years to come, from m.eddling with the slave 
trade. No question as to the reception of this petition was made, although its reference 
or commitment to a committee, Vath a view to its being reported upon, was vehemently 
opposed by some of the Southern members, on the ground that it .asked Congress to do 
that which was unconstitutional. Mr. Madison advocated its reference: 

"Gentlemen," he said, " might vote for the co/7(7?»'tei;nf [or reference] of the petition 
•without any intention oi' svpporting the. prayer of it." 

On a subsequent day, the debate st'iM oontimiijig, Mr. Madison said ; 

"The debate has taken a serious turn, a,nd it vrill be owing to this alone, if an alann 
is created ■ for, had the memorial been treated in the usual way, it would have been 
co'^sidcred as a matter of course, and a report might have beeu made so as to have- 
givea general s.atib-faction. * * * *^ * * * The pctitioa 

'prayed in general terms, for the interference of Gongiiess, so far as they were constitu- 
tionally authorized; but even if its pr.ayer was in some degree unconstitutional, itt might 
be committed, as was in tho case of Mr. Churchman's petition, one part of which was 
supposed to applv for an unconstitutional interference by the General Government." 

From 17.00 down to 18,35, when the question of the reception of abolition petitions was 
first made in the House of Representatives, all petitions, couched in decorous and respect- 
■ful terms, were received by Congress, whatever their subject matter might be. This fact 
was stated by the late Felix Gru.ndy, in a speech made by him, in the Senate of the 
United titates, ou the 2d of March, 1836, from whichthe following is an extract: 

MU. GRWKDT OS ABOLITION PETITIONS. 

"Therefore, if ther« were no constitutional doubts existing, (as to the right of Con- 
gress to refuse to receive the petitions.) he would, as a matter of expediency, yofe to re- 
.ceive the petitions, to be follov/ed up with a vote to reject their prayer. Bnt he con- 
fessed that the Constitutional right to refuse to receive a petition was very far from 
being clear. The right of p.etition existed before the formation of the Constitution. It 
was well understood by the framers of that instrument; and although it only declares 
that Congress shall pass no laws to prevent citizens from peaceably assembling and pc- 
titioning'for a redress of grievances, it never could have entered into their minds, that 
those to^whora the petitions were to be addressed would refuse to receive them. Of wiiat 



value is the right of petition, if those to whom petitions are addressed will not receive 
them, and acl upon them? The trainers of the Constitution remembered that the Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain had passed hivvs prohibiting citizens from ass»mbliug, consulting, 
and petitioning for a redress of grievances. They recollected the acts, comnronly called 
the riot acts, and tlierefore they inserted the provision contained in the Constitution, 
But it never entered into their minds that petitions, when signed, would not be received 
by those to whom they were addressed. It was a matter of very little consequence to 
citizens that they are permitted to assemble and petition for a redress of grievances, i^ 
after they have done so, their petitions are not to be received or considered by those 
who have the power to act upon the subject-matter of the petition. To his mind these 
argnments v.ere too strong to be disregarded ; and he was unwilling to give the Aboli- 
tionists the beneht of them. At present they have no foundation on which to stand. 
They are giving way to the pressure of the public intelligence in the non-slaveholding 
States. But iTwe s'hall enable them to blend the right of petition with their abolitiou 
schemes, they may raise a storm which will shake the very foundation of this Govern- 
ment. Troni the year 1790 down to the present day, all petitions have been received by 
this body which were respectful and decorous, whatever the subject-matter of the peti- 
tion might be; and at every session, the petition of the Society of Friends, clothed ia 
similar language with the present one, has been received. Mr. G. would not depart now 
from the established usage. He considered the reception of the petition and the rejection 
of the prayer as the strongest course ag^ainst abolition that could be adopted." 

To the same conclusion with Mr. Grundy— namely, that the petitions ought to be re- 
ceived and acted upon, came Mr. Bell, as will be seen by the following extract of a letter 
written by him to the late Hon. Geo. R. Gilmer, of Georgia, in 1840, and published in a 
number of the newspapers of the day : 

MR. BELL IN ISiO ABOLITION PETITIONS. 

"When the abolition movement at the North had reached a point of excitement which 
began to be felt in Congress, 1 was actively engaged in the canvass between Judge White 
and Mr. Van Buren. The question was of such a nature as to render it almost impossi- 
ble, in an assembly composed of so many ardent and impulsive spirits as the Congress 
of the United States, that it should not become, in some shape or degree, connected witk 
the party conflicts of the day. Some of my most valued and cherished friends thought 
Mr. Van Buren fairly and justly assailable in the South, on the ground of his vote to in- 
struct the Senators of New York against the admission of Missouri. The favor which 
his friends and supporters at that time showed to abolition petitions, by votiug for their 
reception, and also for their reference under Pinckney"s resalution, appeared to them to 
alfurd a proper ground of attack before the people. I renioustrated earnestly with mj 
friends against the policy ot such a course, and against any proceeding whatever which 
rai"-ht tend to bring about a division of parties, to any extent, upon such u delicate, not 
to say dangerous issue. -^ ,. -^ -s ....-=> -■ „■ 

"At the period to which I refer, (1836,) the opposition to Mr. Van Buren in the South 
and Southwest, with few exceptions, took the position that the right of petition did not 
exist in this case. This opinion v/as maintained upon the ground that Congress had no 
right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia ; and it wa,s contended that a peti- 
tion to do an unconstitutional act was not entitled to notice, and ought not to be re- 
ceived. The argument was carried still further. It was strenuously urged that the ad- 
mission of the power to abolish slavery in the District would be fatal to the South. 

" My opinion was, that whether the petitioners had strict right on their side or not, 
Bound policy dictated the reception and reference of their petitions. I believed that any 
unusual course in regard to thein would give undue importance to the movements of the 
abolitionists, furnish new ground for agitation, and rather increase the existing excite- 
ment than allay it." 

Under these convictions, Mr. Bell only, of all the southern representatives in Congress, 
(save Mr. Bouldin, of Virgina,) voted against the second clause of the fifth of 

THE ATHEUTON RESOLUTIONS, 

which provided, that all petitions " relating in any way or to any extent whatever to 
slavery as aforesaid, or the abolition thereof, should, on the presentation thereof, with- 
out any further action thereon, be laid on the table, without being debated, printed, or 
referred." 

The origin of these Atherton resolutions was as follows : On the night of the 8th of 
December"^ 1333— Martin Van Baren being President— there Avas a meeting in Washing- 
ton of a few administration members of the House of Representatives from the South and 



10 

a few from the North. The meeting was called at the instance of the Hon. R R Rhett 
of South Carolina, who, since the days of nullification, has had the etrongest proclivities 
towards disunion, mid is now an open disunionist, to consider certain resolutions which 
he had prepared on the subject of slavery. The resolutions were considered and adopted 
and as it was deemed expedient that they should be offered by a northern man' Mb,' 
Atherton, of New Ilampsliire, was selected for that purpose. Accordinoly, he presented 
them to the House three days afterwards, made a speech explanatory of his reasons for 
otferinnr them, and concluded by calling the previous question, so as to cut oft' all debate 
and amendments. Gov. Wise was at that time a Whis representative from Virginia 
He denounced the whole proceeding in the most indignant terms on the Huor of the 
House; and on a subsequent occasion, in a public address to a portion of his constitu- 
ents, he stated that these resolutions were prepared in secret, so far as the Whir^ repre- 
sentatives from the South and North were concerned, and agreed upon by some few or 
more Van Huren men of the South, with others from the North, without permitting the 
Whig slave-holding members of the South to know anything of the matter, until it was 
eprung upon the House, with a call for the previous question. He said these resolu- 
tions, thus prepared and brought forward, were "the first of a strict party proceeding " 
known to our national history. 

This was the first organized effort at slavery agitation for strictly partv purposes. The 
eoncoctors and authors of the proceedings were southern Democrats, who contrived to 
secure the co-operation of a portion of the northern Democrats of the House. Mr. Rhett 
who prepared the resolutions, is a confessed disunionist. Mr. Atherton, who was in- 
duced to offer them, voted in 1347 for the Wilmot Proviso. And Mr. Van Buren, of 
whose administration the parties to the movement were all supporters, became in 1848 
the Freesoil candidate for the Presidency, on the Buffalo platform— receiving the support 
of a majority of the Democracy of New York over Gen. Cass. 

The same patriotic considerations which moved Mr. Dell to vote anainst the clause in 
the Atherton resolutions, impelled him to vote against the famous ° 

TWENTY-FIRST RULE 
of the House of Representatives, which was as follows: 

"That no petition, memorial, or resolution, or other paper, praving the abolition of 
Slavery in the District of Columbia, or any State or Territorv, or the slave-trade between 
the States or Territories of the United States, in which it now exists, shall be received 
by this House, or entertained in any way whatever." 

The rule was adopted, in a House where parties were nearly balanced by 114 yea= to 
108 nays— Messrs. Bell and Gentry, of Tennessee, and Anderson, Calhoun, and Undcr- 
vood, of Kentucky, being the only southern representatives who voted in the negative 

At the next Congress, (the 27th,) the House being AVhig, the rule was again ado'jited ' 

At the next, Congress, (the 28th,) on the 3d of December, 1844, on motion of John 
Quincy Adams, the rule was rescinded by a vote of 108 yeas to 80 navs. 

In the House by which the rule was rescinded by this very decided maiority tho 
Democrats \\i).(\. a. m:\]ov\\.y 0^ two-thirds! 

The grounds upon which the rule was rescinded by this overwhelmino-ly Democratic 
House had been very fully discussed by leading Democrats from the free States at'the 
preceding session of the same Congress. Among these was a distinguished Democratic 
representative from New York, the late Samuel Beaudsley, who, in a speech delivered 
on the 5th of January, 1844, said : 

" What has the refusal to receive these petitions done, but to create perpetual strife 
and denunciation? * * * * -i * * ^ 

The remedy of driving petitioners out of doors is a wrong course; it is affrontino- to 
them, and in my view a violation of the Constitution. It never will end aaitation eiUier 
here or elsewhere. I, therefore, would beseech and entreat of the South\o chanoe the 
question. I pray them to consider and respect the right of petition." '^ 

The rescinding of the rule was strongly advocated by another distin"-uished Democrat 
the Hon. J. A. Wright, of Indiana, now United States Minister at Berlin, who was at 
that time a member of the House of Representatives, and who used the following- lan- 
guage : 

"You now sec, since the adoption of this rule in 1840, these miserable fanatics and 
enthusiasts going through the country, setting up their notices and placards, large as life 
aad in all these announcements, they are lor lectures to be given on the riyht of peli- 
Uon—lhc right of petition. Thus we have an issue made wholly different from that of 



11 

abolition. And I now ask gentlemen to say ivhetber they insist on this false issue? 
Will they press the question in this shape? I ask them to change, and to meet the 
questioa in some other way-either, as Jlr. Grundy says, by rejecting the prayer of the 
petition, after the reception, or by some direct vote putting the matter to rest. For one I 
am determined to vote so as to give this question its true appearance. I have a sovereign 
contempt for these wild, deluded, enthusiastic abolitionists; yet I cannot vote for the 
rule. 1 want to take this weapon out of their hands, and let them stand forth on their own 
prmciples; and if they had not this rule, or question of the right of petition, (connected 
as It IS with their movements,) they would not be worth in a short time a passing notice 
******* ^' \ ■ 

"I hope that gentlemen see this question as understood by the people; that it is not re- 
garded as one of abolitionism, but one of petition. And'it becomes the duty of this 
House to change the issue. It is now regarded by the great mass of the people of the 
free States as a blow struck at what they consider as the right of every citizen in this 
country — the eight to be heard." o j u mio 

Upon //.«r grounds, thus earnestly urged by the Democratic lenders of the free States, 
the famous Twenty-First Rule, after a four years' trial, was rescinded by allouse of Reo- 
resentatives numbering two Democrats for every Whig! And it was in this way br 
actual results and the votes of an overwhelmingly Democratic House, that the course of 
Mr. liell on the subject of abolition petitions was most signally vindicated! 

SLAVERY AGITATION— STRIKING ILLUSTRATION OF MR. BELL's FORESIGHT. 

The letter from Mr. Bell to Gov. Gilmer, above referred to, was writton and published 
just twenty years ago. In it there occur the following passages : 

"The deliberate and persevering obstinancy with which the^supporters of the Adminis- 
tration [Martin Van Buren's] in the slave States persist in making abolition one of the 
issues between the two great parties which now divide the country, I consider mcked 
and mischievous m the higheU degree. * * * What ought to be the measure of indignation 
and punishment which should be dealt out to those hollow and false guardians of southern 
interests, who icill,for the sake of a trijling party advantage, put every thing to hazard hr 
perpetual agitation ? For there is, and always has been, quite as much to be apprehende^fl 
on this subject from those who agitate the question on political account, in the South as 
from the abolitionists themselves. 

I have been a member of Congress, as you know, f»om the commencement of the agi- 
tation upon the subject. I have witnessed all that has taken place in Cono-ress in rela- 
tion to It. I saw, and I think I fully understood, the game tliat was playinrr by some 
gentlemen, but I was not inclined to take part in it, because I thought the stakes too 
high Jt was a common impression that the first movements of the abolitionists at tho 
Isorth were not looked upon with any deep regret by a portion of our fellow-citizens of 
the South. I he fanatic spirit was rather provoked than deprecated. The North 
without distinction, was freely charged with a feeling of settled hostility to southern in- 
terests; and many injurious reflections were cast upon their motives, calculated to give 
strength to the cause of the fanatics, by uniting with them a more rational and calcu- 
lating class of the Northern people. The motive to this policy in the South, to whatever 
extent it was adopted, was, beyond all doubt, to combine the South and Southwest more 
closely in their political movements and preferences. I then thought the experiment a 
dangerous one, regarding it in a j.olitical view only ; for it struck me that if the ambi- 
tious aspirants of the North should take it into their heads to play the same sort of <rame 
in retaliation, the South would soon be thrown into a settled minority, and forthwith 
deprived of political power. 

To these views entertained and published by Mr. Bell, twenty years ago, we ask the 
candid attention of the people of the slave-holding States, as eminently worthy of their 
grave consideration at the present juncture, and as poring a flood of light upon Mr 
Bells whole course upon the slavery question. He saw the » game " which the Van 
Bureu leaders of the Southern Democracy would play with slavery agitation— a game 
for party purposes— and foretold what would be the result, if persisted in. He regarded 
It as a most dangerous and reckless game for the South ; for it struck him, " that if the 
ambitious aspirants at the North should take it into their heads to play the same sort of 
game in retaliation, the South would be thrown into a settled minori'ty, and forthwith 
deprived of political power." 

The southern Democratic aspirants would, however, persist in the game, until northera 
aspirants took it into their heads to play the same in retaliation, and the result has been 
that Freemont came near being elected to the Presidency in 185G, and that Lincoln may 



12 

possibly be elected in i860— in which event lho?e '-hollow and false guardians of 
sonthei-n interests" who originated the game— who have been industriously playing it 
ever since, and who have \n\t up their last stakes upon it now, have anncuuccd their in- 
tention to break up the Uuion it they can ! 

The people of the South can thus fully understand why Mr. Bell has, through the 
■a-'aole of his long public life, uniformly opposed the making of unnecessary or immate- 
rial issues between the South and the North on the subject of slavery. Does not the 
present unhappy and alarming state of the Union conclusively prove, that Mr. Rell, in 
pursuing that course, hap shown himself to be a most sagacious and patriotic sttitesman, 
and a true and loyal son of the South ? 

THE SLAVERY QHESTION IN 1850. 

In the Senate of the United States on the 3d, 4th, 5th and Gth days of July, ISpO, Mr. 
Bell "-ave his views on the slavery question in all its varied aspects. His opinions on 
iill the material points involved in the subject will be found in the passages from his 
speech, which we proceed to give : 

Territorial rights of the. South. 

" In the opinion of by far the greater number of the most eminent jurists of the United 
States the laws of Mexico prohibiting slavery at the [lime of] the cession are still ia 
force and must remain so until they are expressly repealed, either by Congress or tne 
local'le"-i=;lature. This is the opinion of the distinguislied Senator from Kentucky [Mr. 
ChVl hhu'^elf. Such is the opinion of the scarcely less distinguished Senator from 
Michigan [Gen. Cass:] and such is the opinion of the able and eminent statesman, the 
Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. Webster.] three leading champions of this bill 1 do 
not foro-et ia,i,iother Senator from the South, of high rank in his profession, [Mr. Baoger,] 
who is al'^o a supporter of this bill. Thus, sir, slavery, if it goes into New Mexico at al., 
must force it^ wav there, in despite of all the obstructions of local laws, and ol the 
interdict imposed 'bv this bill on the territorial legislature. Still it is contended that 
the South is secured in the full benefit of the doctrine held by some of the most dis- 
tinguished champions of its rights, who maintain that the Qon^iMnWon, proprio virjorc, 
th-U the flao- of the Union protects the citizen in the enjoyment of his rights of property 
of every description recognized as such, in any of the States, on every sea, and in every 
territory of the Union. And this doctrine, it is said, is well founded, ana if it shall be 
BO declared by tlie Supreme Court, will authorize the introduction of slavery into New- 
Mexico The soundness of the general doctrine held upon this point, I think, cannot 
well be" questioned or disproved; and if the question related to a territory situated as 
Oren-on wa^ when the United States came into possession of it, property in slaves would 
be e^ntitled to the protection of the laws and Constitution of the United States ; butthe 
question is more doubtful aud formidable to the interests of the South, where it is raised 
in reference to New Mexico, where there has been an orgai^ized society and government 
for two centuries, and where slavery was prohibited by the local sovereignty beiore and 
at the date ^f tlie cession to the United States; and where under that prohibition slavery 
h"d cea<!cd to exist. The Constitution in its application to this Territory, is expected 
not merelv to protect propertv in slaves, as in the case of Oregon, before there was any 
exercise of sovereigntv upon the subject one way or the other, but to supercede the local 
laws in force prohibiting slavery, when the United States came into possession o it I. 
the obstructions interposed bv these law^s were removed, theu the principles of the Con- 
stitution would be left to their full and fair operation, and the South might look, with 
some confidence, to the protection of slave property in this territory through the courts 
of the United States." 

Mr Bell was in favor of removing these " obstructions," in ord^^r that the " principles 
of the Constitution" might be left "to their full and tair operation," and that ''the South 
miaht\oo\ with some confidence to the protection of slave property in this tcrntory, 
ihrourrh the courts of the United States," as will appear by his vote m f^u'or oi tho 
following amendments to the Compromise bill offered In Mr. Davis of Mississippi : 

"And that all laws, or parts of laws, usages or customs, pre-existing in the territories 
acouired by the United States from Mexico, and which in said territories restrict, abridge 
or obstruct the full enjoyment of any right of person or property ot a citizen of the 
United States, as recognized or guaranteed by the Constitution or laws of the Lniied 
States, are hereby declared and shall be held as repealed." 

The yeas and nays on the adoption of this proposition to repeal or abolish the Mexican 
laws prohibitory of slavery, were as follows : 



IB 

Yeas-Messrs. Atchison, BELL, Berriea, Clemens, Davis of Mississippi, Dawson Foote, 
Houston, Hunter, King. M^son, Morton, Tearce, Rusk. Sebast.an, Soule and ^ulee-18. 

N,vs-Mcssrs. Badger, Baldwin. Benton, Bright, Cass, Chase, Clarke, C ay, Cooper, 
n -l n.vi- of Massachusetts Davton, Dodge of Wisconsin, Dodge oi Iowa, Felch, 
^^: M^'j^i;:: m^ No^i^, rhdps, Pratt, Shields, «n.ith, «I'n-c^ Stu^eon, 
Underwood, LIpha.n, Walker and Whitcomb-oO. [tiee Congressional Globe, ^ol. 21, 
part 2 — page 1,254.] . , , , 

Mr Bell also voted a-ainst an amendment offered to the bill by Mr. Baldwin declaring 
thft"Ue Mexican awr prohibiting slavery should be and remain in force m said territory 
uitll thJv should be alter' d or repe^Ucd by Congress." [See page 1,U6 of same volume.] 
He voted also against the following amendment offered by Mr. Seward : 
<^ Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, otherwise than by conviction fof <^"™«. 
shaliever be allowed in either of said territories of Utah and .New JI^xico.- [^ee pag« 
1,134, same volume.] . 

He voted also in favor of an amendment offered by Mr. Berrien, o Georgia providmg 
againsUhe passage of any territorial law " establishing or prohibiting slave, y. [bee 
same volume and page.] 

The cai^se of freedom u-rajy^eduj, in the Constitulion and the Union-" a Wretch tcho does not 

deserve to hce. 
"The gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Chase,] New York, [Mr. Seward,] and New Hampshire 
TMr Uak 1 alTc about the cause of freedom. I wish, sir, I had the strength to speak 
.1 nut e'cav e of freedom. Paradoxical as it may appear, this ques .on is one that 
cone Vn the cau; of" eedom in the South as well as in the North. It is not a question 
whether vou will permit a few slaves of the South to go and toil in Calitornia and New 
Mexi o but it i a'question of freedom everywhere. The cause o freedom is wrapped 
nnTn ?he Coniitution and the Union. These are the great bnlwarks-the Chinese wall 
of f elm 11 2 once broken down, anarchy and military despotism become our m 
he t'we Thi. is the stake to some extent at issue now. H we allow faction-fmatical 
or St c^l-pr conceived opinions-prejudice or partiality for particular plans or modes 
d u tncn to sway our course, we strike ablow at the common liberty. No m.an caa 
be i^iSSed before the^country, under such circumstances, in taking the position^that he 

-^i^sr;^-?uSS5iS^^i::;;;'S5;2s^s 

?;nn • ahv this burnino- fever that threatens to consume the system. Terminate th.3 
uUn" vh h ismore intolerable than an open -Ptu'-^-. /f -f °f ^1^ So" h have 
made un'our minds to vield nothing; to endure nothing; or if a better spin actuate ue 
amfwe arrprepared both to vield something and to endure something, and yet cannot 
hrinJonr nor herTbrethren to any terms of just and equitable arrangement and they 
wircont^ire to vex and harrass us, now and forever, let ns resolve, and let them suffer 
us t^m am ge our own affairs in our own way. I trust it wi 1 never come to this issue^ 
"; to" PPo'e hat there is one member of this body who is not ready to sacrifice, to 
c(^ncede om;th g of his individual sentiments to secure an adjustment of these qtie-. 
ion' weThe nntrammcled by pledges, to which he may owe his position here, and 
X' iThe may not violate without dishonor-to suppose there is one man here from the 
No or the South, who, upon a cold and selfish calculation of personal advancement, 
would insist ni"n extreme issues, is to suppose him a wretch who does not deser.e to 
live." 

HUMANITY AND JUSTICE OF THE DIFFUSION AND EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. 

" The f-tnatics and sentimentalists of the North, with all the countenance they re- 

the KortlX tt fi,"'™ h™;« .o ofti;, CKprcssed on the subject of fjeecion, ™d t he 
tbe xsoitii, oj tut inic liowever sincere and conscientious tlie atiti- 

SA- sei'lTnTStJe S«T, t^.. t.e cnnse of fi-eedo. nora sentiment. 

hnmfliiitv is the active principle of the non-extension policy of the Noith. Were upro 
posTb^he South to im^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^"^^ now 



14 



tbe policy of diffusion and eVt L on into Vn n r.irHr' '' ?' ""T"'.' ^^'■^^'"ends 
and the reasons are too obvious oLn.i=„i . ""to/J "dapted to his condition; 
it is not a principle of Sumanity that dl ite t1,7 r ^ 'T '^'' '^""^^'^ '''''^^'''- ^o, sir 
is deeply founded in the ambiS of tlrnnJif I 

ofson\hern influence and coSl ad' r/etXtL^^^^^^^^^ 

who haye succeeded to theexecuthe n.nu/ t ff '''" f/'^' '°"- ''"" of southern chiefs 

n^ore than an, others, haye dScd S:';;:^.,^^?^;r;h '^ thi^^S:^^ -^^^^^' 

INVOKES THE JUSTICE OF THE NORTH. 

^n^r\}^'^^::!;^o?':^r':;:;^^^^ P--ns and influences, 

if "ot their forbearance l)>^o"e%tSrLrnfrth: "'"''"' f "•^' ""■"'^^" '"'^'^'' 
incident to the South, under l"e pro'ie { of H.H^ S r"°"' ^""^ sensibilities natural!; 
Confederacy. While hat pro r'cted Im?n. J'f'^i"" ^°'''' ''^"'^ influence iu the 

and so keenly- felt at t Lrtl/ was lyaTs n^r." ' ^°"^'' ^^''^'^'^ '^^^^ ""^'^ ^« 1«"^ 

having ever attained the Pre dc^' • xce. bL ''"'""''' than real-no southern man 
half, and always of a lar-^e dh-i" on of e Nnl l "°"f "'•'•''°^;^ "^ oftentimes more than 
the period of southern ascendencT-if i ever had Vn'"' T'^-l ''"""' ^^ ^''^'"''''^ '^'^' 
Political power and ascendency ^in a sect on.^ vlt' , ^f ^^'^"^''^-"PP'-o^^^hes its end. 
South forever. And this is omani^es h "t i SenaVi'r''^ ^^'''"^( '>:''''^ --'^>' ^^^y. the 
not forbear tauntinc^ the Sonth\vhh ♦! ' Senator, who spoke m this debate, could 

change has taken'jlacrin V^ iUcal^oSw V' '^'^'/""-^ ^T'""^^' ' ^ ^^^^ 
South and the North- it is no J ,h„ k !; ^ !7'o -^^ " "° longer,' he exclaims, 'the 

ueeds not :o be reminded"; h i^.m ^h ^u'no,^ ofrr'l ''''. '"■^'^' '''■ ^^^^'^^^ ^ 
people of the South have, in pro n^f 1 e nrl^ - r "'T'^ J^^'^''^ and when the 

Slates, in rapid successio; wifE t l!..-!"^ ?/"" ^^ .^'^^tor ten additional free 



HE HOLDS FAST TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

in;:';osefa trrie7t:'iy.^!^f il''l '''' '"^ the Constitution n^ntil I see that it no longer 
these distracting ieLnwi yfrb dT^; 'h"^ T.^' ""\' '''^' '^"^^ adjustment of "all 
i^onable as not only to stay the ^ro^ess ot l?fr "t "^'*f ""^Z ' ''''''' "" J"^^* '-^"d rea- 
highest evidence tLt no'd ver.Sy^of locafS SS '' '° S^^^ "°'-'*^ "^^ 

any other cause of occasional di4nsion?lv n I ' "'' °f:;^e'^'ional interests, or 

-nder the ties which nowTiid SroieX^ IV onrp'opl!" '"^"'"^ '°^ '^'''''''' ^' '^ 

J MR. BELL ON AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Scn^te^Stt; irs^yrnVrf^wlvT^^^^ ^f'"^.^'- -^"^^-ce of the 

extension of which to the neu JrrT. ^ ° '^"bject of that institution, against the 

It has been den^n ed i'l th debTte^afa Jre":? ^"'l^'T "f-"'*"^^^ '' S-'at^ horror^ 
wrong and oppression to the race vvLich arfth. '^y ^'l ^""^'"'''^ '''''^ ' ^' ^ Snevons 
country which tolerates it and a n nnon tl t •''•'*' ""^ ''} '^ ^^'^^^ ^""^ '''''' t° the 

lam identified with this so mucVah L? .^'^^f°'?^'c■e"'^es of the masters individually. 
this Chamber, in assoti::,Tn character and 'in"reT' ''•f"f- ^P^f "^^^-e position i^ 
sentiment. It is, therefore na"ura?tl^rT .1 '"/'^^P«"^^'b'lity to the tribunal of public 
charges of my noVtherTcouatnmen - ^^°"Id^--ke a^ brief rej,ly to the accusatory 

stit^: m'; i:zzvL7 i2:::i'Z:T'' r' ^"-^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^--^^^ "- ^^^^^^ 

with sufficient conformity 'to hi torical^/^act tt? ''"''"f ^ "^ '^^*'^"' '' ^"-^^ "^^^ ^^'^^^d 
more, a few thousand natives of Af ca i^ Lm Ld'^' T'"""' "",^ " /"'^^ '-'^ °'- =^ ^'"'^ 
rudiments of the Caucasian race sclrce . l ' ., "'^ ''''"'P''^ ""'^ ''■''^' '"'« coarsest 

savage in their habits both of w.r n^ ^r "" ^l'*" impress of the human face divine: 
own native haun twere ciuoht '>n and f ^'"''l ^r'T' ""' '^'' "'''^^ ^^'^^^^ °f thei 
of bondage, and th y S th fr LsTenSan fh ?i°-''V° *^^^^-^' '^'''''' ''"^'"'''^ ^o a state 
now behold? These^ few tJ.onsand s.y«-, f 'V^^^^"^--/ "ntil this day. What do we 
three millions of soulsTcivili ed chnsSed'^'n f^"'' '^ ^''"'. ^''''^'' "'""Bering 
improved features, menta anTnhvrnlf^r '•? "'"^ generation developing some 
the race of their maslrs strrP,) ' > indicating some further approximadon to 

striking and zconderf alone JZfth hTT: "^ f- ^'"'^^ '''^ ''^'"' '^' -'^^"-^'"^ « f^''^ ^o 
ejui, one so worthy the contemplation of the philosopher, the statesman, the 



15 

Christian and the i^hilanihropist ? This great fact stands out boldly before the world; and 
in the impressive language of the Senator from Missouri, (Mr. Benton,) it stands for an 
answer ; and it must ever stand for an ansicer. Sir, it can never he successfully answered, lias hu- 
manity cause to drop a tear over the record of this c/reat fact ? Has Africa any cause to mourn ? 

"But there are some other and subordinate facts, fairly deducible from the greater 
and more prominent one, which may likewise defj' contradiction or answer. The rapid 
multiplication and improved lineaments of this people attest the fact, that the yoke of 
bondage has pressed but lightly upon them; and that they have shared freely, with their 
masters, of the fat of the land. Go, I repeat, and search the pages of history, and where 
will you lind a fact comparable to this? The history of the Hebrew bondage presents 
no parallel — nothing so wonderful. The family of Jacob (the germ of the Hebrew nation) 
were of a superior race, and civilized. There is one singular analogy, however, besides 
that of bondage, which may be traced in the history of these two people. While the re- 
ligious institutions of the one forbade any amalgamation, social or political, with their 
masters and surrounding nations, nature, by laws more stringent and inexorable, forbids 
to the other any equality, social or political, with the race which holds them in bondage. 

"As to the lawfulness or sinfulness of the institution of slavery — whatever phrenzied 
or fanatic priests, or more learned and rational divines may preach, whatever they may 
affirm of Christian precepts or moral and religious duties and responsibilities; whatever 
interpretation of the law of nature or of Almighty God they may announce ; whatever 
doctrines or theories of the equality of human rights, and of the different races of man- 
kind, diversified as they are by complexion, by physical formation and mental develop- 
ment, infidel philanthropists, or the disciples of a transcendental creed of any kind, may 
bold or teach; however they may dogmatize upon this hypothesis, and declare it to be 
a violation of the law of nature, for anyone race, with whatever superiority of mental or 
physical faculties they may be endowed, to subjugate those of an inferior grade, and make 
them the instrument of improvement and amelioration in their own condition, as well 
as in that of masters or conquerors, in carrying forward the great work of civilization, 
until we shall be enlightened by revelation from a higher source than themselves, I must 
claim the privilege of interpreting the law of nature by what I see revealed in the history 
of mankind from the earliest period of recorded time, uncontradicted by Divine authority. 
I must interpret that law according to the prominent facts connected with the subject, 
as they have stood out in the past, and as they stand out before us at this day. Looking 
through the eyes of history, I have seen slaverj- or involuntary servitude, the hand- 
maid of Hindoo, Egyptian Assyrian, Jewish, Greek and Roman civilization. I have seen 
the institution recognized by the theocratic government of the Jews — the chosen depo- 
sitaries of the Word of Life — by democratic Athens and republican Rome. I have sece, 
upon the overthrow of Roman civilization by the savage hordes of the north, that those 
new masters of western Europe and their successors, adopted and continued to uphold 
the same institution, under various modifications, adapted to the changiug condition oi 
both slave and master, and stUl under an advancing civilization, until a comparatively 
recent period. I see the same institution tolerated and maintained in eastern Europe, 
at this day. I see the native race of all British India, at this moment, bowing the neck 
under a system of quasi slavery. But above all, I have seen here — on this continent, and 
in these United States, the original lords of the soil subdued — some of them subdued to 
slavery, other expelled, driven out, and the remnant still held in subordination ; and all 
this under an interpretation of the law of nature, which holds good at this day among 
our northern brethren; and I have yet in reserve that great fact to which I have already 
alluded — three millions of the African race, whose labor is subject to the will of masters, 
under such circumstances that their condition cannot be changed, though their masters 
should will it, without destructiou alike to the interests and welfare of both master and 
slave. These are the lights by which I read and interpret the law of nature. 

"Now, sir, permit me to say a few words upon the effects of this institution upon the 
country which tolerates it. To the great fact to which 1 have more than once alluded, 
conjoined with the system of equal laws, which our ancestors brought to these shores, 
perl'ected and consolidated at the Revolution, and by the adoption of the present form 
of Union, we are indebted — the world is indebted for that other great phenomenon iu the 
history of the rise and progress of nations ; a phenomenon, in all its bearings, not yet 
fully comprehended by the nations of the Old World, nor even by ourselves ; and which, 
in all future time, will be the study and admiration of the historian and philosopher;, I 
mean not the founding of a republic on these shores, so recently the abode only of 
savage and nomadic tribes, but its amazing growth and development; its magic-like 
spring, from small beginnings — rising, as it were, by a single effort, by one elastic 
bound, into all the attributes of a first-rate power; a great republican empire — able not 
only to maintain its rights of sovereignty and independence, by land and sea, against a 



16 

hostile world, but at the same time, by its cxam])le, shaking to their foundations the 
despotic powers of the earth ; a great incorporation of freedom, dispensing its blessings 
to all manlvind. Sir, the fable birth of Jlinerva, leaping in full panoply from the head 
of Jove, if a truth, and no fiction, would scarcely be more wonderful, or a greater mys- 
tery .^without the clue which African slavery furnishes for the solution of itr 

"Sir. making all due allowances for American enterprise and the energies of free labor 
with all the inspiring advantages of our favorite system of government, I doiibl whether 
thepoiccr and resources of this country tcould have attained more than half their present extra- 
ordinary proportions, hut for the so much reviled institution of slal-ei-y. Sir, your rich and 
varied commerce, external and internal ; your navigation ; your commercial marine, the 
fiurscry of the military; your ample revenues; the public credit ; your manufactures ; 
your rich, populous, and splendid cities— all, all may trace to this institution as their icell- 
spritij, their j>rese72t yiyantic proportions ; nourished and built up to their present araazin"- 
height and grandeur by the great staples of the South— the products of slave labor. ° 

" Yet, slavery, in every form in which it has existed from the primitive period of or- 
ganized society— from its earliest and patriarchal form to this time, in every quarter of 
the globe— and all its results— even the magnificent result of African slavery in the 
United States, is declared to be against the law of nature. Though contributing in a 
hundred varied forms and modes, through a period of thousands of years, to the amelio- 
ration of the condition of mankind generally ; though sometimes abused and perverted 
as all human institutions, even those of religion, are still contributing to advance the 
cause of civilization; though, if you please, having its origin in individual cupidity, still 
mysteriously working out a general good; yet slavery and all its beneficent results are 
pronounced to be against the will of God, by those who claim a superior illumination 
upon the subject. This may be so ; but I must say that this conclusion, so confidently 
announced, is not arrived at in accordance with the Baconian method of reasoning, by 
which we are taught that from a gre:it many particular and well-established facts iu'the 
physical economy, we may safely deduce a general law of physical nature; and so of 
morals and government. It seems to my weak faculties, that it is rather an arro>?ant 
and presumptuous arrangement of the ways of Providence, mysterious as we know them 
to be, for feeble man to declare, that that which has been permitted to exist and prosper 
from the beginning, among men and nations, is contrary to its will. 

"But whoever has studied the history of civilization, the progress of society of laws 

and government — must have perceived that certain abstract or Theoretic truths, whether 
in civil or religions policy, have been, and can only with safety to the ultimate ends of 
all societies and governments, be unfolded by degrees, and adjusted at every step, ac- 
cording to the advance of society from its infancy to a higher civilization and a more en- 
lightened comprehension— such as the equality of natural rights of self-government, and 
freedom of speech and opinion. These general truths, though they cannot be success- 
fully controverted at this day, yet, as they have been seldom admitted, in their length 
and breadth, in the practical operations of government, with success, some law-givers 
have been led to deny that they are founded in reason; and when they have, at an}°time 
been suddenly embraced by the controlling minds among the people, the misfortune has 
been that they were applied in excess, and without due regard to the actual condition 
of the people who were to be affected; and hence they have, so far, failed of success in 
some of the most highly civilized nations of Europe. But it is more to the point to refer 
to the emancipation of the slaves of St. Domingo— one of the first explosive eficcts of the 
sudden recognition of the rights of man by the French people. It would be difficult to 
demonstrate, at this day, that the cause of humanity, or of human progress has been, in 
the slightest degree, promoted by the abolition of slavery in that fertile and beautiful 
island. It is, I believe, now pretty well understood, that British statesmen committed 
an error in the policy of West Indian emancipation, forced upon them by fanatical re- 
formers. They were driven to adopt a sentiment, instead of a practical truth, as the 
foundation of a radical change in the social condition of a people, who were not prepared 
either to appreciate or profit by it. Even the reformation in religion and church gov- 
ernment, commenced some three centuries ago, in the opinion of many of the most pro- 
found inquiries, has failed of that complete success whieh ought to have attended it, for 
tiie reason that the general truths and principles upon which it wUs founded were' ap- 
plied in excess. The zealous champions of reform, in throwing aside all ceremonies and 
observances which affect the senses, and in spiritualizing too much, there is reason to 
believe, have stayed the progress of substantial reform, and checked the spread of reli- 
gious restraints upon the evil passions of men. But this is a delicate .subject, and I 
must forbear. 

" These examples may show that there are certain abstract truths and principles which, 
however incontrovertible in themselves, like every other good thiuc, may be, and often 
aie, misconceived and abused in their application. It is the business of statesmen, .ia 



IT 

every country, to fipply them with safety, and to give them the utmost practical influence 
and efTect consistent with the existing state of society. Tliemost interesting illustration 
of this sentiment, and the most striking exiiniple of the sn])eriority of ])ractical truth 
Over theoretic axioms, in the formation of government, to be found in all history — and 
one which claims the special attention of the jieople of this country at this moment — was 
exhibited by our ancestors, when, with their own recognition of the abstract truth of the 
equality of natural rights still vibrating on their tongues, they yet fearlessly set their 
seals to a covenant of union between these States, containing an express recognition of 
slavery. I say express recognition; because whatever the Jesuitical doctors of the 
North may say, the clauses in the Constitution relating'fo the importation of persons lia- 
der certain limitations, and fixing the basis of direct taxes and representation in Con- 
gress, I afiirra, do amount to an express recognition of slavery." 

Search the debates of Congress on this exciting subject from IVDO down to the present 
time — t:xamiue diligently the speeches of the most distinguished leaders of the southern 
Democracy, Mr. Calhoun and his compeers — pore over all that has been said and writteij 
by the ^^•llo!e tribe of southern politicians who have made it a part of their business, in 
season and out of season, to instil into the southern er.r doubts and suspicions of Mr. 
Bell's " soundness on the slavery question," and say if, among them all, there can be 
found so masterly a relutation of the accusatory charges urged against the people of 
the fciouth Oil account of the existence in their midst of the institution of African slavery. 

MR. BELL IN 1854— THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 

We come now to what may justly be considered as the most important act of Mr^ 
Bell's public life — his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska act. A few brief passages 
from the two speeches made by him in the Senate on that memorable occasion will sutlice 
to place before the people of the South (where his vote against the bill has been made 
the subject of bitter condemnation) the motives and reasons by which he was governed. 
Hear him, fellow-citizens: 

Repeal of the Missouri Compromise — A great practical question — Its prohahle results con- 
sidered. 

" If this measure shall appear to be as important to the interests of the countrj- as its 
friends assume, I shall feel no embarrassment arising fiom any of the questions to which 
I have just alluded, in giving my support to the juinciple of non-intervention, embraced 
in the provisions of the bill beibre the Senate. 1 think it is a wise and expedient prin- 
ciple, for general application, and upon this ])oint, it will be perceived, that there is no 
difference between myself and any of my Southern friends. It is not a new principle. It 
was the principle adopted in the compromise acts of 1850, and had my full concurrence 
and support. But in the a])plication of this [irinciplc to the Territories j)roposed to be 
organized by this full, in order to give it a free and unembarrassed operation, it is pro- 
posed to repeal the Missouri Compromise ; and thus a great practical question is directly 
presented ; and one which, above all others, claims the dispassionate consideration and 
reilectlon of every statesman of the country ,uorth and south : Is it uise, is it expedient to 
disturb the Missouri Compromise ? Does the repeal of the slavery restriction clause of the act 
of 1820 promise such imporia7it and benificcnt results to the country that all objections should be 
yielded?'' 

Missouri restriction unjust to the South. 

" Sir, it is contended that by applying the principle of non-intervention to the Terri- 
tories, we shall harmonize the action of the governincnt by conforming it to the prin- 
ciple of the coiupromise acts of 1850. Admitted. It is said that the shivery restriction 
clause of the act of 1820 was a violation of the obligations of the treaty by which France 
ceded to the United States the Territory of Louisiana. I admit it. It is contended that 
the restriction upon slavery imposed by the Missouri Compromise was unjust to the 
South. That is also true. 

" The attempt of the North in 1820 to interdict slavery in Missouri, as a condition of her 
admission into the Union, and the continued resistance oflered to the application of that 
State l^or admission, until the South ngreed to accept the proposition to itilerdict slavery 
in all the rcmaiuing territory ceded by France, lying north of the line of 3(j° 30^, was 
just such a proce«diug ihat the great names invoked by the honorable Senator from 
Massachusetts, (Mr. Sumner,) to sustain him in his course as an abolitionist — Washing- 
ton, Franklin, Jelierson, and Ilamiltion, had they been living at the time, anti-slavery in 
sentiment thougli the}' were, would have raised their united voices against it, as conceived 
in, a spirit the very reverse of that which controlled their own course when they gave 
o 



18 

their sanction to the Constitution ; when they contributed the full -weight of their great 
names and characters in conciliating and reconciling the strongest antagonisms of senti- 
ment and interests between the North and the South ; and in blending all in one great 
organic instrument of Union, unparalleled in the wisdom of its iirovisions and the 
grandeur of its results. Jefferson did raise his voice against it, but unhappily his 
glorious compatriots of the revolution had passed away, and he, in his retirement, was 
no longer able to control the active passions of the day." 

lie fears (he consequences of repealing the Missouri Compromise. 
"Having thus gone over all the grounds of objection suggested against the validity of 
the Missouri Compromise, I trust it will be seen that I am not disposed to controvert 
them cither as to fact or doctrine, with such exceptions only as upon more deliberate 
consideration, by those who asserted them, will be allowed to be well taken. But, sir, 
admitting them, with the exceiitions I have stated, to be incontrovertibly true, siiil the 
main ciuestion remains to be considered and decided : Do these facts and doctrines de- 
monstrate the expediency of disturbing the Missouri Compromise under existing circumstances ? 
And in coming to an affirmative conclusion upon this point. I hesitate, 1 pause." 

Froballe consequences of the Repeal further considered. 

" I have listened with attention to all the luminous expositions of theories of con- 
stitutional construction, and of popular sovereignly ; to tlie ingenious ap[)lication of 
doctrinal jjoints to questions of compacts and compromises by the Iriends of this measure. 
The question has been fruitt\il of themes for dialectic display ; for the exhibition of 
great powers of analj-sis and logical acumen ; but the whole argument has been singularly 
defective and unsatisl'actory upon the main question : What practical advantage or benefit 
to the country generally, or to the South in particular, will the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise secure ? 

" It is asserted with great confidence that the application of the principle of non-inter- 
vention to these Territories, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, will have the 
effect to transfer to the local legislatures, the Territories and States, and to relieve Con- 
gress for the future from the most dangerous and distracting subject of controversy v.hich 
ever has, or ever can disturb its deliberations ;. that the source of those sectional con- 
flicts and agitations upon the subject of slavery, which have more than once threatened 
the peace of the country, will be removed ; that justice will be done to the youth ; that 
the Constitution will be restored and vindicated, and a new guarantee provided for the 
stability of the Union. 1 UGcd noX. sa.y ihAt, if one-half of the many beneficent results predicted 
of this measure can be shown to folloiv as a probable consequence of its adoption, I would no 
longer hesitate to give ifmy support; but unfortunately the argument has proceeded ao 
further than the affirmation, without showing how these results must or will follow." 

Wisdom of the Repeal doubted. 

" Sir, I believe there is a better feeling prevailing at the North towards the South than 
formerly; but would it not be wise on the jjartofthe South to do nothing to reverse the 
current off that better feeling, unless urged by some great necessity in vindication of its 
rights ?" 

What has the South to gain by it ? 

"What hns the South to gain by the measure? ***** Will 
slavery be established in the Kansas Territory jiroposed to be organized under its jiro- 
visions? Does any one who has fully considered the subject, believe that this Territory 
will become a slave State ?" 

lie differs icith his Southern friends only as to the results of the measure. 

"I have said already, and I repeat, that if I could take the view of the importance of 
this measure to the country which my southern friends do — cutting off the source of all 
future controversy between the North and the South — p\itting an end to agitation in 
both sections upon the subject of slavery — I would feel justilied in waving all my objec- 
tions to this bill, and in uniting heartily with them in its support. We differ only as to 
the results of the measure." 

The foregoing extracts are from the first speech of Mr. Bell on the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, delivered in the Senate on the 3d of March, 1854. (See Appendix to Congressional 
Globe, vol. 29, page 407.) 

From his second speech on the bill, delivered on the 24th and 25th of May, 1854, we 
make the subjoined extracts, for which see Congressional Globe, vol. 29, pages 947-958. 



19 

TrohaUe consequences of the Repeal further considered 

They will see tl/at it n.usiZu[^^^^ Comp.-or.ise. 

tional men of the North Th... 1 ? '"'^ steady, sober, j)atr utio, im- 

turned fiom ll,c North, „„i bat c's°,nin^ .i.fj^f r '1°' "'"' \ "?l"""'' "»'' '«- 

Squatter Sovereignty. 
"As to the principle of 'squatter sovereignty,' I wish further to .nv thnf •*!,,. 

common with the South gcnerallv thev Tthe noonl^ nf t„,, ^ -i ^" V''^*^ contest, ia 
that a handful or any number of in'h vbit. ut ^^'"P''^ °^/^"=^r^f<^e]/^P»^i'=Ued the idea 
have the pov.-cr gran^ted to l^m^t^i:i^^S^J'^^'''''';^''''^': ^^^-'^ 

mmmmmmm 

course. We thoueht that if a Tprritn^;.,! r 1 • i r , , , • ^° result from such a 
^M5i cf^c/wr^e /^w duty to the Country at whatever sacrifice 

kind, ,vhc„ any B Ik meas" ?e"If;™™i'ra';S'? "'" '"'■"'"°*^ '■"■'"" ""''"'1"=' " ""^ 
become, ..r„„J? ^presTcd";,;?, 7c' "rnvic^on" .IS SlX^fo,: 37^ '"1"°° 

a deference for the opinions of others have^often .ndueed m to g v my tu po 'jo'meTs 
ures of inferior importance, which my jud-ment did not annmve ^'''PP^'* '° "^^'^s- 
ZS:i^ ^"r'ff' -V'^^'^^^^ dl/ibenxr/reiectei.^ "i^^- wh nl'hllv^ShS 

^; ed :?-;t^a;:rtbSr::dt^--z-nA-t^^ 

A Conservative sentimeni at the North-Danger of alienating it 
and to tl,c couauy geoerallj, it „-„„Id be a differ'ent <l«e'slton But I l°l not b, 1?^ 



20 

Tcrted from the issne made -n-ith me, that there is no great body of conservative and 
national Whigs at the North, ready to stand by the rioutU on questions affecting their 
rights and institutions. I deny the assertion. I know that there is a hirge body of pat- 
riotic and noble Wiiigs at the North, who, though they do not approve this bill, have 
steadily opposed the Abolition movement at the North, from it,3 inception, and have 
always deprecated all agitation on the subject of slavery. They, like all northern men, 
have been, from training and education, opposed to slavery; but they have been trained 
to respect and revere the Constitution and its compromi>:es ; and they have shown their 
determination to respect and stand by the compromises of 1850, in their unwavering efforts 
to" silence Qpposition to the fugitive slave law, and to secure its faithful execution. And, 
gir, I would incjuire of those who assert that there is no sound national Whig party at 
the North, what has become of that noble Whig phalanx at the North, who stood by 
•and sustained Daniel Webster in his bold advocacy of the compromises of 1850. Where 
the supporters of Iilillard Fillmore at the North ? Where the Union Whigs of New York ? 
Where the conservative spirit Avhich prompted five hundred of the most respectable citi- 
zens of iJostou, said to be the very hot-bed of fanatacism, to enroll themselves as special 
const;iblcs to secure the execution of the fugitive slave law? Is there no consideration 
due to tlie position of such Whigs as those at the North in deciding upon measures so 
v.'cU calculated as the present to weaken their position and influence, or rather, to use 
the forcible language of the Attorney General, 'to crush them out?' 

" Hut, sir, there is a conservative sentiment in the North, outside the ranks of those 
Whigs kuown as the supporters of Mr. Webster and Mr. Fillmore, even among those 
denominated Krcesoilers, or the opponents of the extension of slave territory, belonging 
to the Whig and Democratic parties: I allude to those who acquiesced in the compro- 
mises of 1850 — those who are opposed to the plans of the abolition organization, and 
entertain no purpose of pressing their anti-slavery feelings and doctrines to the point of 
disunion. Is there any wisdom or sound policy in adopting a meixsure not called for by 
any public necessity or interest, but so well calculated to incite that large class of north- 
ern citizens to form combinations which may lead to a permanent alienation between 
the North and the south ? " 

Eise of the Rejn/blican parfi/ prcdiclcd as a consequence of the. Repeal. 

"Sir, the tendency of this bill is to stimulate the formation of a section;\l partj' organ- 
ization. And as I said in my speech on the passage cf the Senate l)i!l, I regard that as 
the last and most fatal evil which can befall this country, except the dissolution of the 
Union; and that last and greatest calamity to the country, the success of such a move- 
ment would infallibly bring about. I trust, sir, that my fears on this subject will 
prove to be groundless, and that no such results as 1 have indicated Vv'ill ever be 
realized." 

Mr BELL IN 185G— ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 

The following are extracts from a speech made by Mr. Bell in the Senate, ontlie 2d of 
July, 1856, on the bill to authorize the people of Kansas to form a Constitution and State 
Government preparatory to their admission into the Union: 

HE ADVOCATES ITS EARLY ADMISSION. 

" Wlioever has looked closely into this subject, and comprehends all its bearings, must 
be satisfied that, though v.-e may remove some of the more fruitful sources of the exist- 
ing disturbances in K.insas, dissension and discord will still continue, not only in Kan- 
sas, but throughout the country, until Kansas shall become a State. The excitement 
and agitation at the North may be expected to continue, even with increased intensity, 
so long as their remains any prospect of the success of the pro-slavery party, in order to 
unite and consolidate public sentiment in opposition to the admission of Kansas as a 
slave vState. Can tlie countn'— can the Union, stand five years of unmitigated agitation 
upon this distracting subject? It seems inevitable that agitation must continue through 
the present canvass for the Presidency. There is no remedy for that evil. Had I the 
power, by my voice, I would paralyze — I would crush this many-headed monster — this 
Kansas hydra at once; but, as that is impossible, i protest against the extension of this 
controversy into the next ensuing contest for the purple. I protest against that, as 
equally unnecessary and perilous.'" 

Practical Worlcings of Squatter Sovcreifjnfy . 

" This principle of popular sovereignty, connected, as it was in tliis case, with the 
repeal of tlie Missouri Compromise, was thought ijy its friends to be of such transcendant 



importance, that when the Nebraska bill passed the Senate, at a late hour of the 2d of 
March, 1854, the inhabitants cf the national metropolis were awakened from their slum- 
bers by peal after peal of deep-mouthed artillery, announcing the glad tidings that the 
great principle of popular sovereignty was triumphant; that justice was vindicated by 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; that the reign of the Constitution would now be 
restored, and that shivery agitation would return uo more to vex the land! As ihough 
some great victory had crowned our arms o^ er a public enemy, as at Buena Vista or 
Cerro (ioido heights, the reverberations of the cannon had scarcely ceased, when the 
same joyful tidings \^■ere carried viith electric speed to every quarter of the Union. 

"1 trust I may be permitted, without offence, to say that, in a long tract of time, no 
example can be found of a delusion engendered in the heat of controversy, more com- 
plete than that which appears to have taken possession of those who pressed the Ne- 
braska bill to its hnal passage through Congress. Where, now, do we (ind the realiza- 
tion of those pleasing dreams which doubtless inspired the authors of that measure? 

* -K- * * -jf * 

"Mr. President, I do not wish to say any thing that can be considered ofTensivc: but 
I must say I do not kcow any way in which 1 can so well illustrate the true character 
and tendency of the organic law of Kansas, as by comparing it to the preliminary ar- 
rangements which usually attend the sports of the ring. Without any far-fetched anal- 
ogy, that law may be said to have iuaugurited a great national prize fight The ample 
lists were regularly marked out — ihey were the boundaries of Kansas. The two great 
sections of the Union, the North and the South, were to furnish the champions and to 
be their backers. The prize of victory v.'as to be a slave State on the one siiie and a free 
State on the other. But as the victory was to be decided by the number of the,cham- 
])ions, to encourage their enlistment and prompt attendance, the prize of a choice quar- 
ter section of land, at the minimum price, was to be awarded to the champions oa either 
side. 

" Vv hen we consider that the chamjiions on both sides of this great national contest were 
deeply iuiluied, for the most part, with adverse principles, sentiments and prejudices, ou 
the subject of shivery, e.xcitcd and inilamed almost to frenzy by recent and violent agi- 
tation ; and that the inh:;bitants of the western counties of Missouri v.ould naturally be- 
come sensitive and excited in the highest degree by the prospect of a free State on their 
borders, it is not extravagant to assert that, had the most inventive genius of the age 
been culled upon for a scheme of policy combining all the elements cf slavery agitation, 
in such a manner as to insure the greatest amouut of disorder, personal and neighbor- 
hood feuds, border disturbance, and bloodshead, in Kansas, leading, at the rame time, 
to pcrma-nent sectional alienation, he could not have succeeded better than by adopting 
the pru\'L£ior.s of the Kansas-Nebraska bill." 

IIn insis!s upon the importance of a speedy acljuslmcnt. 

"Sir, months ago, when authority was first given by the President to Oovcrnor Shan- 
non to call to his aid the niilitsiry force of t!ie United States then at I'^ort Leavenworth, 
we were told that there would be no further disturbances; but we have been disap- 
pointed. The diforders have rather increased than diminished sinf^e that time. It may 
be that there will be no more unauthorized mi!it;iry arrays on either side: but will that 
cure the evil? Every settler in Kansas now goes armed, and prepiired for sudden con- 
flict; and does any one sup^iose that any future emigiant to that 'i erritory will fail to 
eqnip himcelf fully with the' means of self-defence? Does any one suppo;c that there 
will he no more secret assocititiuns, no longer any system of intimidation kept up, no 
longer any use for the bowie-kiafe, revolver, or Sharpens rifles? Again, 1 ask, where is 
all this to end? Can quiet ever be established unless one part}^ or fbe other is driven 
out by force, or shall voluntarily abandon the contest, or until Congress sh;":ll adopt 
some measure to end the controversy? 

"And, sir, what forbids. that we should now adopt some measure, icith provisions so' fair 
and just in all respect's, that it cannot' fail to mitigate, if it cannot remove altogether, ex- 
isting evils, and in the shortest period consistent with this spirit of fairness and justice, bring 
the whole matter in controversy to a close, by admitting Kansas into the Union as a 
State? Uo this, and we rnay leave the issues in the hands of a high power. * * * 

"Settle this slavery controversy when we may, now or at any lime, or in any way, the 
best that can be devised, whate\er section may have a triumph, there will remain, on 
the side of the vanquished, a deep and rankling feeling of discontent and aliena- 
tion; and a whole generation must pass away before they will cease to mar, to some, 
extent, the general harmony. On the question whether Kansas shall be «. free or a Slavq' 
State, as a representative of Southern interests, mj- preference, cf course, is for a slave' 
State. But, sir, if in a fair competition it must be so, let it bo a free State, let it be retro- 



22 

ceded to the Indians, the abori.o-inal occupants of tbc soil ; let it become another Dead Sea. 
rather than continue the pestilent source of mortal disease to our system." ^ 

MR. BELL IN 1858— THE LECO.MPTON CONSTITUTION. 

In the speech made by Mr Bell in the Senate, on the ISth of March, 1858, on the Le- 
comptoa Constitution bill, there occur the following passages : 

Issues between the North and the South— Estimating the value of the Union. 
"It is more than indicated; it is boldly assumed by some gentlemen that the rejection 

?ntn IhriT'"'"' \ ^^" '"^'^'^''^ '' *" '^'^^■'^'°" '^'^' "^ ^"--^ '^^^' States are to be adm e3 
into the Union and the coDsc;quences which may follow such a decision are pointed to 
in no equivocal language. There is no genileman here with whom I ditler as to the value 
o the union ol these States, to whom I do not accord honestv and patriotism of purpose 
There is simply between us a difference in judgment as to the true interest of tl i. Ivl^i 
country; tlie true interest of the South as well as the North, connected with the Union 
When my attention is invited to the consideration of the advantages and blessin<.s thai 
may lollow disunion to the South, I shun the subject as one that il speculative only and 
prematurely brought forward. That is a field of inquiry into which I do not propose 
now to enter. V\ hen an issue is made; when a question does arise demanding nc 1, an 
inquiryas that, I shall be ready to enter upon it, and to estimate the value of the Union- 
but 1 will not anticipate the occurrence of any such contingency. When the North .h'lll' 

th^e'Z m n7!f 'r ' -'''P"-'; ?' ^'^"''^ f ?^ *^'^' ^"^ J"^^' ^^^ ^q»^l participation in 
the benefits of the Union-.f, for example, the Territory now proposed to be admitted 
into the Union as a State, had not been subject to an interdict of slavery for thirty 
y^ars-.f It were a Territory such as that lying west of Arkansas, by climate adapted to 
slave labor, and by population already a slave Territory; and if, on application of such 
a Territory tor admission into the Union as a slave State, the powerful North without 
any of the leelings and resentments naturally growing out of the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise in regard to Kansas, should deliberately announce to the South ' you . hall 
have no more slave States,' that would afford a pretext with which the South mVht 
with some reason, and with some assurance of the approval of the civilized world and of 
posterity, seek to dissolve the Union. I know that it is supposed by some, that the day 
will come when the North m the arrogance of its power, will furnish just such a pretext 
a 1 have indica ed; and the Senator from Georgia and others have argued this question 
on he ground that it will come; bnt I must see it come before I will calculate the value 
of this Union. I trust that day will never come. I do not believe it will come if the 
South IS wise and true to itself. I would not have them truckle or surrender any of 
their rights. I would not have them yield one jot or tittle of their rights; but I would 
have them make no questionable issues in advance, stir up no strife imon unnecessary 
abstrac questions, haymg no practical value; but to do always what is just and rio-ht 
upon all questions, \\hen a people or a Territory applies for admission into the Unton 
under a constitution fairly formed, with the assent of the people excludin<r slavery I 
would admit It promptly; and when an application comes, on the other hand from the 
people of a Territory who have fairly formed a constitution recognizin<^ slavery I would 
insist upon its admission as a slave State. If the North should nol a-ree to this it 
would then be tune enough to consider of the proper remedy. But I would make no 
issue with the North now, and before any occasion for it has arisen; and I re-ret most 
sincerely to hear any Senator from the North suggesting that such an issue witl ever bo 
tendered from that quarter." 

WHAT OUGHT TO BE DONE? 

"With regard to the present question, I lay down as the basis of my conclusion as to 
what ought to be done, that the solution of it which promises the speediest termination 
of this dangerous slavery agitation is the true one This dangerous agitation has con- 
tinued long enough. There has been no mitigation of it in the last four years There 
have been intervals of apparent repose, but it was just such repose as foreboded increased 
disorder and commotion. It is time to terminate it. 

The question is. What is that solution which promises the speediest and most perma- 
nent remedy for these dfiiculties? Divine that to me, whoever can, and I will follow 
bis .lead. How shall we cut this Gordian knot of Kansas politics? Shall we cut it by 
the sword? Shall we first subdue the rebellious faction, said to exist in Kansas by force 
of arms, or shall we endeavor to unravel this tangled skein by some more peaceral'mcans?" 



23 

Frauch and Irregularities of the Lecompton Constitution. 

"My friend from Florida [Mr. Miillory] said, in his able speech the other day that 
It would be difficult to persuade the people of the South that if this Constitution be 
rejected by Congress, it will not be upon the ground that it recognizes slavery. That it 
also the opinion of the honorable Senator from Georgia and others. Unless it be that 
these honorable Senators want some immediate pretext for a movement in the South' I 
advise them to investigate this question more fully than they seem to have done before 
they conclude to make the rejection of this measure, should it be rejected, a causus dis- 
junctionis [a case for disunion.] We are told that it will be difficult to persuade the 
people of the South that any other objection exists to this Constitution except that it 
recognises slavery, and these opinions are avowed in the face of accumulated frauds and 
irregularities connected with its history, and though it is clear that four-fifths of the 
people of Kansas are opposed to it. 

•'It will not do for these gentlemen to say that there is no record or other satisfactory 
proofto show the frauds and h^egularities alleged against the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion, or any other statements made by the oi.ponents of this measure in relation to 
the state of things existing in Kansas. The supporters of this measure in the Senate 
and in the House of Representatives, have obstinately persisted in votinn- down every 
proposition to investigate and take proof upon the contested questions of fact- and I 
take It ior granted that this course would not have been persisted in, unless 'it was 
understood that the facts would turn out as they have been char<^ed If I have not 
■wholly misconceived and misstated the material points in the history of Kansas affairs 
-which preceded the formation of the Lecompton Constitution; if I have not misrepre- 
sented the facts connected with its formation; if I am not wholly mistaken in the' views 
I have presented of the existing state of public sentiment in Kansas in relation to 
this Constitution, is it becoming the character of the national Legislature to accept 
this instrument as the organic lav/ of the new State which is proposed to be admit- 
ted into the Union? 

/'Is it fit, is it becoming the Senate of the United States, to stamp this Constitution 
with all Its attending circumstances, with their approval, and send it to Kansas to be 
abided by or resisted to blood by the people there? Surely, sir, there ouo-ht to be some 
great and overruling political necessity existing in the condition of affairs to justify 
such a proceeding." •* •' 

Thcimssage of the Lecompton Bill would strengthen Republicanism. 

"I now ask the attention of the Senate to the effect of the experiment localizing 
slavery agitation in the Territories made in 1854, in changing the complexion of parties 
both in Congress and in the country. In the Congress which passed the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, we have seen that there was, at the commencement of the s'^ssion in De- 
cember, 1S33, a Democratic majority of eighty-four in the House of Representatives and 
only four Free-Soilers; and in the Senate a like number [of the latter]— so small yet 
so distinct in their principles, that neither of the two great parties then known to' the 
country knew well how to arrange them on committees. * * * Now, let us see 
what was the effect of the Kansas-Nebraska act on the elections which ensued in the fall 
of 1854, just on the heels of the adoption of that measure. One hundred and seven Free- 
boilers were returned to the House of Representatives; and the Democratic party in- 
stead of having a majority of eighty-four in that House, found itself in a minori'ty of 
seventy-six; and in the Senate the number of Free-Soilers was increased to thirteen 
Such was the complexion of the two Houses of Congress in the thirty -third Cono-ress' 
which assembled in December, 1835. Now, we find in the Senate twenty Free-Soilers' 
How many more they may have in the next Congress will depend upon the disposition 
we make of the question now before the Senate. I call upon the Senator from Georgia 
to say whether he will have that number limited or not. Does he want a sufficient num- 
ber to prevent the ratification of any future treaty of acquisition? How lono- will it be 
before we have that number, if the southern Democracy persist in their prese°nt course? 
They would seem to be deeply interested in adding to the power of the Republican party 
I consider the most fearful and portentous of all the results of the Kansas-Xebrask'i act 
was to create, to build up a great sectional party. - * I consider that no more omi- 
nous and threatening cloud can darken the political horizon at any time How formi- 
dable this party has already become, may be well illustrated by the fact that its repre- 
sentative candidate, Mr. Fremont, was only beaten in the Presidential election by the 
most desperate efforts; and I feel warranted in saying, that but for the eminent prospect 
ot his success which shone out near the close of the canvass, Mr. Buchanan would not 
nave attained his present high position. ***** 



24 

"In the closing debate on the Kunsas-Ncbraska bill, I told his supporters that they 
could do nothinguiore certain to disturb the composureof the two Sciiaton-; on tho opposite 
side of the chamber, the one from Massachussetts, [Mr. Sumner] and the other from Ohio, 
[Mr. Chase] than to reject that bill. Its passage was the only 'thing in the ran<ie of pos- 
sible CTcnts by which their political fortunes could be resuscitated, so comi)letely had the 
Free-Soil movement at the North been paralyzed by the Coraproniise measures of 1850. 
I say now to the advocates of this [the Lccompton] measure, if they want to strengthen 
the llepublican party, and g'ivc the reins of Government into their hands, pass this bill. 
If they desire to Aveaken the power of that party, and arrest the progress of slavery 
agitation, reject it. And, if it is their policy to put an end to the agitation connected 
with Kansas affairs at the earliest day practicable, as they say it is, then let them remit 
this constitution back to the people of Kansas for their ratification or rejection. In that 
way the whole difficulty will be settled before tlie adjournment of the present session of 
Congress, without the violation of any sound principle, or the sacrifice of the rights of 
either section of the Union." 

Mr. Bell rejAics to the complaints of the JVorth against the Sozith, and calls I'pon the followers 
cf },[r. Seward '■'■to arrest him in his mad career." 

"The honorable Senator from New York farther announced to us, in exultant tones, 
that 'at la.-;t there was a north side of this Chamber, a north side of the Cha.aber of the 
House of Representatives, and a nortli side of the Hnion, as well as a soulh side of all 
these;' and he admonished us that the time was at hand when IVeedoin would assert its 
due inOuence in the reguLation of the domestic and foreign policy of the country. 

"When was there a time in the history of the Government that there was no north side 
of this Chamber and of the other? When v/as there a time that there was not a proud 
array of northern men in both Chambers, dLstinguished. by tl^pir genius and ability, de- 
voted to the interests of the North, and successful in maintaining them? 

"Though it may bo true that southern men liave tilled the executive chair for much the 
largest portion of the time that has elapsed since the organization cf the Government, 
vet v/hen, in what instance ^vas il;, that a southerner has been elected to that higli station 
v<-ithout the support of a majority of the freemen of the Nprth? 

"Do yonof the North complain that the policy of the. Government, under the long con- 
tinued influence of southern Presidents, has been injurious or fatal to your interests? 
Has it paralyzed j'our industry? Has it crippled your resources? Has itimpaii'ed your 
energies? Has it checked your progress in any one department of human eilort? Let 
your powerful mercantile marine, your ships whitening ev.ery sea — the fruit of wise com- 
mercial regulations and navigation lav.-s; let your flourishing agriculture, your aston- 
ishing progress in manufacturing skill, your great canals, your thousands of miles of 
railroads, your vast trade, internal and external, your proud cities, and your accumulated 
millions of rabnej'ed capital, ready to be invested in profitable enterprises in any part of 
the v/orld — answer that question. Do yon complain of a narrow and jealous policy under 
southern rule, in extending and opening new fields of enterprise to 3"our hardy sons in 
the great West, along the line of the great chain of American lakes, even to the head- 
waters of the father of rivers, and over the rich and fertile plain's stretching southward 
from the lake shores? Let the teeming populations; let the hundreds of luillions of an- 
nual products that have succeeded to the but recent dreary and uuproductive haunts of 
the red man — answer that question. That very preponderance of free States which the 
Senator from New York contemplates with such satisfaction, and which has moved him 
eiultingly to exclaim that there is at last a north side of this Chamber, has been has- 
tened by the liberal policy of southern Presidents and southern statesmen, and has it 
become the ambition of that Senator to unite and combine all this great, rich, and pow- 
erful north in the policy of crippling the resources and repressing the j)ower of the 
South? Is this to be the one idea which is to mould the policy of the Government, 
when that gentleman and his friends shall control it? If it be, then I opj)eal to the 
better feelings and the better judgment of his followers to arrest him in his mad career. 
Sir, let us have some brief interval of repose at least from this eternal agitation of the 
slavery question." 

The Union — JToiv onlj/ it can be saved. 

" Let power go into whatever hands it may, let us save the Union ! I Ivwe all the con- 
fidence other gentlemen can have in the extent to which this Union is iutrenclud in the 
hearts of the great mass of the people of the North and South; but when I reflect upon 
and consider the desperate and dangerous extremes to which ambidous party leaders are 
often prepared to go, without meaning to do the country any mischief, in the struggle 



65 

for the imperial power, the crown of the American Presidencj, I sometimes tremble for 
its fate. 

"Two great parties are now dividing the Union on tliis question. It is evident, to every 
man of sense, who examines it, that practically, in respect to slavery, the result will be 
the same both to North and South; Kansas will be a free State, no matter what m,iy be 
the decision on this question. But how that decision may eflect tlie fortunes of those 
parties, is not certain, and is the chief difficulty. 13ut the great question of all is how 
will that decision affect the country as a whole? 

"Two adverse yet concurrent and mighty forces are driving the vessel of State to- 
wards the rocks upon which she must split, unless- she receives timely aid — a paradox, 
jet expressive of a momentous and perhaps a fatal truth. There is no hope of rescue 
unless the sober-minded men, both of the North and South, shall by some sufiicient 
influence, be brought to adopt the wise maxims and eage counsels of the great founders 
of the Government." 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

It is particularly worthy of notice, that Mr. Bell's traducers have never assailed any 
sentiment, doctrine, or principle enounced by hira on the subject of slavery. Their ob- 
jections lie, and are limited — 

1. To his vote in favor of receiving and acting upon abolition petitions, as a matter 
of sound policy on the part of the representatives from the Soutli, and in view of the 
injurious results which he believed would follow the fcdnption of the opposite policy. 
The results turned out to be^what he thought and said the>' would; and his course 
was ultimately vindicated, in the fullest manner, by the repeal of the "'Twenty-First 
Rule," after r^n experience of four years, by a House of Representatives numbering 
two Democrats to one Wliig! 

2. To his opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which he based solely 
upon what he foresaw and predicted would be the ''i-esidts." He could find no warrant 
in the Constitution for the clause in the act of 1820, restricting slavery by the line 
of 36-30. He regarded such restrictions as unjust to the South, and in violation of the 
treaty by which the territory was acquired from France. He had voted in 1850 to 
repeal the Mexican laws prohibiting slavery in New Mexico, which wore in force at 
the time of the acquisition. But when it came to voting for the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise, which had been peacefully acquiesced in for thirty years, he apprehended 
dangerous consequences to tha South and to the whole ceuntry from the adoption of the 
measure. He looked at the probable results of the measure, and guided, as he expressly 
declared, entirely by the conclusion which his mind came to as to what those results 
would be. he voted against the repeal, and in so voting, as the results proved, he voted 
against the creation of the Republican party! It would be a gross libel on the majority 
who re])ealed the Missouri Compromise, to suppose they would have done it, had they 
been gifted with the foresight of Mr. Bell, and *;en, as his fiir-reaching sagacity enabled 
him to do, the deplorable consequences which follovs-ed from it. 

No higher tribute could he rendered to any man than that which is unwittingly paid 
to Mr. Bell by the entire array, vast as it is, of Democratic leaders, speakers and writers 
throughout the South, when they call upon tlie people of the South, as they are every- 
day doing, by uniting under the Democratic flag, to interpose a barrier to the onward 
march of Republicanism — when they expatiate upon tlie danger to Southern institutions 
of the government's falling into the hands of the Republicans — when they proclaim that 
danger to be so great, that the South ought never to submit to the inauguration of the 
Republican candidate, if elected. Had .Mr. Bell's prudent councils — his v.ise admoni- 
tions — his earnest remonstrances been heeded, there would this day have been no Re- 
publican party, and the country would now be in the enjoyment of that repose and free- 
dom from slavery agitation which President Pierce congratulated it upon possessing at 
the date of his installation iito the Presidential office. 

3. To his vote against the Lecompton Constitution bill. He voted, his accusers say, 
against admitting Kansas into the Dnion as a slave State. "A' slave State!" The 
Democrats of Tennessee know, and will give ready credence to Gen. Whitfield, their 
former fellovr-citizen and active co-laborer in the cause of Democracy, who removed to 
Kansas at an early day. In his speech against the Lecompton bill, Mr. Bell quoted the 
following extract of a letter, written by Gen. Whitfield to the editor of the Washington 
Union, dated Washington City, September 2, 1S58: 

"I have seen the letter addressed by Dr. Tebbs to a gentleman in this city. Ilis letter 
fully and fairly represents the condition of parties in Kansas, both before and after the 
advent of Governor Walker: and I have been perfectly astonished, upon my .irrival here, 
to find the crusade from the South upon Governor Vv'alker, chargi:ig him with an at- 



26 

tempt to "abolitionize Kansas." It required no action from Governor TValker to make 
Kansas a freo State. Its doom, if it is fixed, was fixed long before Robert J. Walker ever 
entered the Territory. 

" I repeat again, sir, that knowing Dr. Tcbbs well, and knowing him to be thoroughly 
posted upon Kansas affairs, I endorse fully his views and conclusions as expressed in his 
letter to you." 

Erora the letter of Doctor Tebbs, referred to in Gen. Whitfield's letter, Mr. Bell quoted 
the following jjaragraph : 

"That in January, 1857, four or five months before Governor Walker arrived in the 
Territory, the pro-slavery party held a Convention of all the members of the Legislature 
and delegates from every county in the Territory, to discuss the condition of parties, and 
leading pro-slavery men deliberately declared it as their opinion that the pro-slavery 
party proper was in a hopeless minority." 

This Doctor Tebbs was represented in the same number of the Union in which his 
letter was published, as a " Virginian by birth, a slaveholder, and one of the early settlers 
of Kansas,' who had been a '-member of the Legislature since Kansas had become a 
Territory," and whose "radical views on the slavery question had rendered him peculiarly 
obnoxious to the Black Republicans of the Territory." 

Jlr. Bell's opposition to the Lecompton bill, therefore, took place in view of the highest 
Democratic evidence in the Territory — that--the pro-slavjry party proper [in the Terri- 
tory] was in a hopeless minority!" 

Mr. Bell also, by authentic facts and figures, demonstrated that an overwhelming ma- 
jority of the qualified voters of the Territory were opposed to the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion. In view of these facts, Mr. Bell argued, that to impose that Constitution on the 
unwilling majority of the people of Kansas — large and overwhelming as it was — would 
be an act of arbitrary power on the part of Congress, in violation of a fundamental 
principle of all free institutions, and which, under all the circumstances connected with 
it, could be of no sort of advantage to the South, while, on the other hand, the in- 
evitable effect of it would be further to excite the North against the south, and to give 
increased strength and vitality to the Republican organization. 

The Republicans had already twenty Senators. How long would it, Mr, Bell asked, be 
before they would have a sufficient number (one-third) to prevent the ratification of any 
treaty of acquisition, if the Southern Democracy persisted in their course? The 
Southern Democracy did persist, and the result was as Mr. Bell saw and foretold; the 
Republican Senators have been increased to more than the requisite number, to enable 
them to reject any treaty they may see fit to reject. 

Did the advocates of the Lecompton bill, Mr. Bell further asked, want to strengthen 
the Republican party and give the reins of Government into their hands? If they did, 
let them pass the bill. Did they desire to lessen the power of the Republican party, and 
arrest the progress of slavery agitation ? If they did, let them reject the bill, and send 
the Constitution back to the people of Kansas for their ratification or rejection. These 
are the grounds upon which Mr. Bell opposed the passage of the Lecompton Constitution 
bill. If well taken, they fully justify Mr. Bell's course. Who, at this day, will say that 
they were not well taken? What candid man will censure Mr. Bell for acting as he did 
upon those grounds? 



MR. EVERETT THIRTY YEARS AGO. 



There is a peculiar fitness in the candidates of the Union party to stand before the 
people as the exponents of the platform of the Union, the Constitution, and the enforce- 
ment of the laws. From the commencement of their public career, throughout all their 
service in the councils of the nation, and in every public and private capacity, they have 
both been distinguished for their strong devotion to the union of the States, their un- 
wavering maintenance of the Constitution of the country, and their rigid requirement 
that the laws should be justly enforced. Upon the vexed and vexatious slavery question 
they have occupied^ precisely this position and no other. They have carefully avoided 
the extreme prejudices and opinions prevailing in their respective sections of the coun- 
try, and have preserved an inviolable nationality. 

Mr. Bell, representing in Congress and in the United States Senate a southern consti- 
tuency, has never faltered in his defence of the rights of the people of the soutliera States 



27 



.io„ .bat def, ,ho cru.„„,.,^.°:;'ali:u'^„■??,i;'s»n" u f'"' '"'° •" "'""' -""' '''°''"- 

iiiiiiSpsipi 

more eloquently or in terms of more dedded enrobation ' Z"'"'"^ ^''' '''I ^'P"'^^° 
manly lan-naffe he doe" not thinkL f l '^^P'^o'^'^t'O"- ^onse liis own bold and 

IS Ko CAfSK,- h Cvel/and nSS-in^ 'r"^' v.surrcc^ion at the South." " Thehb 

by^rrsrr°^tb:^s;^[^^;3s^v^^^"^n''^^^^^^^^^^ 

SSeit^~-i£i^^ 

theoretic equal ty of man i itenar^bl fr'o J' ^'^•''' "'r .'^^^^ departures from the 
which the f?,rm of this seVwtudVX ' l fix?d biu'^rn^rJ 'T°" "■' "° °^'"'- "'^^ ^^ 
slavery, thou^d, I confess not tb >t form of ..rl> h \ po^'t'c-il >nsf,tution. Domestic 
ficial {o the .mtster-certain V tiat wJ^^ch i nl . t' ^Y^\^^'^^^ to be the most bene- 
Jud^nj^t, t. ^ set down af Lt^^^l^lL^d Sg^^^jSi^^^^^^ ^^^— '^ -^' - -7 
'RiseS;:tt;;U^l^f't^;r;-y^-!^^: feslavejand that this voice is, 
and though I know full well th t'ia the Ln? . '^^''^ ''^'■''' "'^'^^^^H"'' "'^^^^^^ 
gathered master and slavraroum tl^e t' „ " ''^°P'''''''°" °^ Ohri..ti=W,itv, which 
Tution disappeared in vlZ.TyTlTZnZlu.^^^^^^ nnfortunat^ insti- 

sists, its dut es are not presunnose i and s- n.^f if \'- " '"^"'''' ^"'^ ^^^'^ '' ^ub- 
»m not called upon to meet th^e httes bro,^^^^^^^^ ^ T. '?'°"- • ^"'^ ^^""^^ ^ ^"-^^'inlr 
me to say a word more on the sul^ct ^ °''"'' ''^^^ institution, yet truth obliges 

3u:s;iSiintir^L7t;;^iS^:^Ti^; --rr' ^-^ ^-i^-iy ac. 

lieve the slaves in this country are bet e^clot ed nnH t / Jf '""V" '"'''"'? that 1 be- 
the peasantry of some of the Vost p osp ous silft nf'/r"'^ '"''• ^"*^'^' ''''''^'^- '^''^ 
consider the checks ou populat on^eTdTut? What^ ''^ 

Poverty, want, starvation, di ease, and al the fl Is of life i^ I ti ' P^'^'^f '«» down? 
tion all over the world Vow the sKve nnnnl r • *■' tt'' ^''""'^ "'■''' ^'heck popula- 
than the white, masters indud'ed P°P"'^^tion in the United States increases foster 



These are 'l^oi^l^^l iJnl" enLSe^'aTf "" -^^ ^'^ ^^^« ^'^--^^ --'^ty? 
^'ubject, and which I here iene^t^n ^n 1 ' f , '°"^.s>nce publidy professed on this 



^8 

Clemen*— when it comes to affect the distribution of power among the States of the 
Union tli.it is a matter of agreement. If I make an agreement on this subject, I will 
adhere to il lil^e a man, but 1 will protest against any interference being made from it 
of the kind which was made by the honorable mover of these resolutions." 

The^c noble and patriotic sentiments of Mr. Everett will be appreciated. They will 
sound gratefully in the ears of the conservative men Korth and South. They are m 
marked comra^^t with the diabolical expressions of the favorite of Republicanism, 
Charles Sumner, and are quite different in tone from any of the expressions ot northern 
sentiment thai have been uttered recently by prominent men of any party in the North. 
This speech of Edward Everett, containing the boldest, the manliejt, and most just vin- 
dication of the South ever uttered by a northern man upon the floor of Congress, will 
carry conviclion to the hearts of southern men that its author will l>e guided only by 
sound, and saic. and conservative, and patriotic principles iiithe perlorm.'nce of every 
public duty. The Union men— conservative men of all parties in the South and in the 
North-may J)e proud to give their support, to candidates who present a record of such 
proud nationality as John ikdl and Edward Everett. 



JIK. EVERETT OM THE SLAVHUY QUE.STIOX. 

Boston, June 18, 1S60. 

Devr Sill- Your letter of the 12th was received by Mr. Everett this day. When ho 
accepted the nomination of the Baltimore Union Convention, it was with the undcr- 
standino' that the correspondence which might grow out of it, should devolve on the 
Union Cominittce here. Your letter of the r2th has accordingly been placed in my 
hands, and as you request an answer that will reach you by return ol mail, 1 have but a 
few mo"'ents to piejiare it'in. 

The Compromise measures of 1830 were regarded and have been supported by conser- 
vative men at; the North, as a fair and practicable basis of united poiilical action be- 
tween the two great sections of the country. To those measures Mr. Everett gave his 

full concuricnce. ^ , ,r , .< r ■ i ^ - 

The papers enclosed in your letter, viz: the resolves of the Massachusetts Lcgislaturf', 
Mr Uorden's letter, and Mr. Everett's reply, date from the year 1839. They were brought 
before the .-e;iatc of the United States ia 1841, at the time of his nomination as minister 
10 En-land, and made the ground of a motion for its rejection. Ileuiy Clay opposed 
that motion with great warmth, and said "that if through the influence ol the South, 
the i<i)por.imcnt of a man of Mr. Everett's known .conservative opinions was rejected, 
the Uaio.' w.i> alreadv dissolved." At the close of a fervid speech by Rufus Choate, in 
sui.portot \ii. Everett's appointment, the late lion. \V. C. Preston exclaimed, "lam 
afraid I have committed mv.^elf to vole against him, but by heaven he sh.dl not be re- 
jected " Mr I'reston was "heard to say that "he regretted that vote more than any 
ever "■Ivcn by him." Mr. Everett's nomination as the lirst minister to China, two years 
l-iter^'wi.. i believe, unanimously conhrraGd in the same Senaic, of which Jn-- V ice 
Pre-d'dent King and Mr. Calhoun were members. His nomination as Secretary of Stato 
on the death of Mr. Webster was unanimously confirmed in 1S.":.2. In the tollowingyear 
he was ck'cted, by the conservative members of the ^legislature of JIassachusetts, to the 
Senate oRtae United States. , . . v *• ,i . 

Mr EvT-.-ott's views with reference to the sectional agitation now disa-acting tuo 
couiit'rv if lel't in any, doubt by his own course, are sn'aiciently shown by the. bitter hos- 
tilitv o'f'tuc entire anli-slaverv press. Thoy were re-aliirmed, to the gre.it acceptance of 
cood patriots throughout the Union, in his speech at Faneuil Hall, on lap o.-casion of 
the attempt at Harper's Ferry; and they are re-stated in his letter signiiymg his reluct- 
ant acceptance of the Baltimore nomination. 

I will only observe, in conclusion, that as it seems to us here, no good can result from 
a review of"a!l that has befiu said or written North or South, for twenty or tlmty years, 
on the ouestion which now more than ever distracts the country. Reasonable men will 
not in either section, expect to find entire concurrence in the other; and if sentiments 
like those entertained, and on all proper occasions avowed by Mr. Everett, t.ul to.^vin the 
confidence of Union-loving men at the South, Mr. Clay's emphatic exclamation in lotl, 
may well bo repeated. 

1 remain, dear Sir. in haste, very respectfully yours, 

EEVEIIETT SAL'! ONS TALE, 
Rresident State Central Committee of the Constitutional Union Party. 
To Joskph W. Taylok, Esq., Eutaw, Alabama. 



29 

The Memphis Bulletin accompanies the puljlication of the above letter with the fol- 
io-wing apposite remarks: 

" Read this letter again. Mark the fact that in 1852, the year in which the National 
Democracy met in convention ai Baltimore, and adopted the ComproniitiC of I.SSO as a 
part of their platform, Mr. Everett was unanimously ^confirmed by a Dcmormtic Senate 
as Secretary of State. Mark the other general facts stated in this letter. Mark the fact 
that he is novr acting against, and always has acted against the abolition party, lie ig 
now in opposition to the Republicans. If he is now in sympathy with tiiem, why does 
he not f'-o with them? There is nothing the Republicans would not give him were he a 
member of their party. Turn to onr back numbers and read what we have from time to 
time published from Mr. Everett. No honest mind believes he is an enemy to tlie South. 
Every honest mind knows that he is true and loyal to all divisions of the I'nion. 

" But if Democrats will try Mr. Everett by his ancient record, they must take all that 
record together, and not garble it to make out ihcir case. Or if they will nut admit the 
possibility of modification of opinion on his part, even in the ])rcseucc of the tc.-timony 
to that effect, they must make him no exception, but judge all men liy the standard they 
have created. That is fair — nothing less would be honest. Judging Democratic states- 
men by this Democratic standard, the Natchez Courier asks, 'where would stand Gov. 
Letcher, of Virginia, elected almost within a year; who, within ten years, was an avowed 
emancipationiit?' Where would stand Charles J. Faulkner, of Virginia, present Minister 
to France, than whom no man has received more States Rights eulogy; whose Froe-Soil 
abolition doctrines e.xpressed within twenty years, would, if now avowed, drive him in 
contumely from the State of Virginia? Where would stand John A. Dix, held up twt-lve 
years ago by the leading Democratic press of the Soutii as worthy of the Presidency; 
'since that, the Free-Soil candidate for Governor of New York, on the Van Buren abolition 
ticket, and subsequently to that a petted recipient of Democratic favor, and now a pro- 
minent office-holder under Mr. Buchanan? Mr. Dix was offered some time since, we 
believe, the Ministership to England, and Mr. Faulkner is now Minister to France; and 
both Free-Soilersiand cmancipaUonists, since Mr. Everett was one, if ever; and the stric- 
tures, now quoted against the latter, are those that grew out of his appointment to a 
foreign embassy in 1841! 

"How of Mr.' Buchiinan; who, in 1826, considered slavery 'a great moral and poli- 
tical evil;' who, in ISUG, presented and voted to receive petitions for the abolition of 
slavery; who, in 1844, considered the subject of slavery the great obstacle to agreeing 
to support the acquisition of Texas; who avowed his repugnance at that time to extend 
the limits and the privileges of the Union over any new slaveholding territory? 

"How of Lenj. R. Hallett, of Mass., for whose rejection in the Baltimore Convention 
the sectional Southern Democrats made a month since their seeond bolt? Mr. Ilallctt, 
in 1849, ten years after Mr. Everett's alleged offence, introduced resolutions into the 
Massachusetts Legislature, of which the following are copies: 

^^ Resolved, That we are opposed to slavery in any form and color, and in favor of free- 
dom and FItEKSOIL, wherever man lives throughout God's heritage. 

" Eesohed, That wc are opposed to the extension of slavery to free Territories and in 
favor of the exercise of all Constitutional and necessary means to restrict it to the limits 
within which it docs or may exist by the local laws of the State. 

"This test of Democratic converts (tried by the Southern Democratic standard) might 
be multiplied. It was only on Sunday morning last that we showed from the record 
that in 183G, Mr. Gushing, the President of the Convention that nominated the Breck- 
inridge ticLetj opposed the admission of our sister Stale of Arkansas into the ( nion. be- 
cause her Constitution tolerated slavery. How does ho stand to-day ? At the head of 
the Southern party. Has he changed since 1836? B^it yon cannot assume tliat, so long 
as yon dtny to Everett the benefit of a modification of his views, and Mr. Gushing stands 
to-day, according to the rule by which Democrats judge Mr. Everett, an abolitionist. 
There is no escape from this conclusion." 

HON. J. M. BERRIEN AND HON. EDWARD EVERETT. 

In 1842, when the charge of unsoundness on the slavery question was made again'st 
Mr. Everett, Senator Berrien being called on to defend his vote for him as minister to 
England, vindicated triumphantly both himself and Mr. Everett. In his address to the 
people of Georgia, on that occasion, he said of Mr. Everett: 

"He was an early, I believe the earliest, and certainly one of the most decided advo- 
cates, on the floor of Con'.i-ress, of the south, of their exclusive right to determine the 
question for themselves, when to the astonishment of the more timid or more prurient of 
his eastern brethren, he declared his readiness to stioulder his musket in defence of them." 



80 

BRECKIKRIDGE AND EVERETT. 

Inhis speech before the Kentucky Legislature, on the 21st of December last Mr 
Breckinridge paid a noble tribute to Mr. Everett. He said: wsi, Mr. 

"There is another clement at the North, not large, but noble and true. It consists of 
the scattered cohorts of the old WIvg party, of men like EVERETT, Choate and the^r 
associates, ^vhose consekvatism, cultuke, and patriotism rebelled against the repcb- 
tiCAN ALLIANCE Besides thcse, there are many thousands in the northern States tcho 
seldom aitend the poles r,n,\ whose voices have not been heard amidst the clamors that 
Burround them To all these let ns appeal ; let us solemnly demand a o-eneral revolt of 
he virtue and loyalty of the country against the pernicious ,,rinciple3 that threaten \il 

;t7;erir\;\"op:t S:!'^- '-' -''''-' '' ^^^■"- ^'-^'- -^'^' - ^'^^' '^ -^^'^^ ^0 se: 



From the Jlontrfomer;/ Post, July 31. 
LETTER FROM JOHN BELL. 

Nashville, July 22, 1860. 
Deah Sir: Your letter of the 9th instant was received ten days since, and it is due to 
you, as well as myself, to state the causes which have delayed my answer to this late 
day to explain what, otherwise, might be imputed to me as discourtesy. Such a ^tate 
ment is due to numerous other gentlemen, who. in the last month or six weeks "have 
addressed letters of inquiry to me, from diO'ercnt quarters of the country, as to mv'views 
aud opinions on the more prominent questions at issue in the pending canvass, and which 
nave received no answer. ' """'^" 

To the inquiries in all such letters there was but one reply, as I conceived, which 
could, consistently and properly, be made, under the circumstances of my position 
which was to refer the writers to my past course ; to the views and opinions I have 
heretofore held and expressed on the subjects or questions embraced in their letter'. 
But It appeared to me that a reply, containing nothing more than such a general refer- 
ence, without pointing out the particular votes, speeches, and other evidences of what I 
had said or done in connection with the questions made the subject of inauirv. or stating 
where they were found, would be ungracious, to say the least of it. To'make such ref- 
erences in my answers would far exceed the ordinary limits of a letter, and I concluded 
that It would be more convenient and satisfactory to both parties, to accompany mv 
answers with a printed collection of such of mv speeches and letters as have a direct 
bearing upon the subjects of controversy, or of such copious extracts therefrom as to 
leave nothing to be supplied by further quotations from them. The prewiration of such 
a compilation wasimmcdiately commenced, by a member of the Central tnion Commit- 
tee of Tennessee; It is now completed, and I transmit, herewith, a copy of it, printed in 
the National Union." It was issued from the press a week later than was anticipated 
by me and hence,_my answer to your letter, as well as to others, has been delayed a 
week beyond the time I had proposed to myself to answer them 

For the reasons which impel me to decline any further answer to the inquiries in your 
letter, I refer you to the first and second pages of the " National Union." You will ob- 
serve that the^ ground there taken is, that it would be inconsistent with the declared 
news of the Convention which placed me in the position I now occupy before the pub- 
lic to make any new declaration of principles. But I do not choose to shelter myself 
under the authority of the nominating convention against any reproach I may incur in 
consequence of the course I have thought it my duty to pursue in relation to this sub- 
ject Had I been a member of the convention I would have resisted the adoption of any 
platform, or other declaration of principles, not embraced or implied in the three funda- 
rnental propositions or objects intended to be maintained and secured by the National 
Union Party and which constitute the basis of its organization-" The Constitution, the 
Lnion, and the Enforcement of the Laws." The great aim of the National Union Party 
Is, to restore peace, with justice to both sections of the Union— not to perpetuate strife 
Whatever m.ay be the policy or designs of others, North and South, who, in their let- 
ters, have insisted upon their right, as a matter of principle, to call upon me to declare 
my views and opinions upon any or all of the questions which have become the subject 
of controversy in the present canvass, and contend that I cannot refuse compliance with 
tiieir demands, without a violation of the obligation they assume to exist, on my part. 
as a candidate for public place, I have no distrust of your sincerity and good faith in 



31 



J 



J 



makmo; the earnest appeals to mo, wh.rh you do in your letter, to take a course, which 
I hope you will, upon reflection, perceive would not be in conformity with the intentions 
and expectations of those who chose me to be their leader, and the rcpreseJtIth i of 
the.r pohcy and pnncp.es ; nor do I doubt your sincere desire to supjortl Union 
^cket If 3 0U can do so consistently with your sense of public duty. It is, therefore 
w.th deep vcgvel that I hnd myself constrained to differ with you in any of your .lews' 
and most ot all to have to say to you, that I cannot go beyond the record of mv nolTf' 
cal life in responding to the questions presented in your letter ^ ^ 

If in the authentic exposition of my course upon the subject of slavery, running throu<rh 
a penod of twenty-hve years, you can find nothing to inspire you with confidence tlnf 
in the event of my election, I would so employ the power and fnfiu n e S?the Exec" ive 
Department ofthe Government, as to give no just ground of complaint to the South or 
any other section ot he Union, while I would regret the loss of your support and thai 
of your friends, I could not reasonably expect to receive it 

You are at liberty to make any use of this letter you may think proper 
I am, with great respect and the mqst friendly regard, 

^ Your obedieat servant. 

Col. Thomas H. Watts. "^^^^^ ^^^^• 



PLEDGE AGAINST SLAVERY AGITATION. 

After the passage of the Compromise Acts of 1850, the following declaration and 
pledge were drawn up by Mr. Clay, and first signed by him and then by some forty other 
leading members of the 31st Congress. They vindicate at once the great importance in 
which Mr. Clay held the Compromise then just passed, and also the immense divergence 
of what is now called the Republican party from the views then held. The follow- 
ing is the declaration : 

-'The undersigned, members of the Thirty-first Congress of the United States, believin.. 
that a renewal otsect.ona controversy upon the subject of slavery would be both dan! 
gerous to the Union and destructive of its objects, and seeing no mode by which such 
controversy can be avoided, except by a strict adherence to tie settlement thereo ef- 
fected by the compromise acts passed at the last session of Congress, do hereby declare 
their intention to maintain the said settlement inviolate, and to resist all attempts ^o 
repeal or alter the acts aforesaid unless by the general consent of the f i ndTo the 
measure, and to remedy such evils, if any, as time and experience may develop 

And for the purpose of making this resolution effective, they further declare that 
they will not support for office of President or Vice President, or of Senator or of Re 
presentat.ve in Congress, or as a member of a State Legislature, any man of whatever 
party, who is not known to be opposed to the disturbance of the settlement aforesaid 
and to the renewal, in any form, of agitation upon the subject of slavery "'''^' 



Efenry Clay, 
Howell Cobb, 
C. S. Morehead, 
William Duer, 
Robert L. Rose, 
H. S. Foote, 
Wm. C. Dawson, 
James Brooks, 
Thomas J. Rusk, 
A. H. Stephens, 
Jeremiah Clemens, 
Robert Toombs, 
James Cooper, 
M. P. Gentry, 
Thomas G. Pratt, 



Henry W. Hilliard, 
Wm.'M. Gwin, 
F. K. McLean, 
Samuel Elliott, 
A. G. Wat kins, 
David Outlaw, 
Alexander Evans, 
H. A. Billiard, 
C. H. Williams, 
T. S. Haymond, 
J. P. Phcenix, 
A. H. Sheppard, 
A. M. Schcrmerhorn, 
David Breck, 
John R. Thurman. 



James. L. Johnson, 

D. A. Bokee, 

J. B. Thompson, 
Geo. R. Andrews, 
J. M. Anderson, 
W. P. Mangum, 
John B. Kerr, 
Jeremiah .Alorton, 
J. P. Caldwell, 
R. I. Bowie, 
Edmund Debcrry, 

E. C. Cabell, 
Humphrey Marshall, 
Allen F. Owen, 



President Pierce pledged himself in his Inaugural, and again in his first Message, that 
by no act of his should the happy condition of the country under the Compromise be 
disturbed ; yet in 1854 the country was again thrown into agitation on this very subject, 
and the Republican party thereby built up and increased. And it is now a lamcntabb 
fact, that some of the signers of the pledge are amongst the most ultra of the agitators. 



NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

OF THE 



Hon. ALEXANDER R. BOTELER, of Virginia, Chairman. 

" JNi). A. ROCKWELL, of Connecticut. 

" W1LLL\M TEMPLE, of Delaware. 

" J. MOUKISON HAiriUS. of Maryknd. 

" JOSUL'A HILL, of (Jeorgia. 

" RICHARD W. THOMPSON, of Indiana. 

" M. Y. JOHNSON, of Hlinois. 

" R0I5E1!T MALLORY, of Kentucky. 

" MAR>HALL P. WH.DER, of Massachusetts. 

" ANTHONY KENNEDY, of MaryLand. 

" D. B. ST. JOHN, of Kew York. 

« JAMES BISHOP, of New Jersey. 

" JOHN A. GILMER, of North Carolina. 

" HENRY iM. FULLER, of Pennsylvania. 

" THOMAS A. R. NELSON, of Tennessee. 

For the District of Columbia, 

Hon. JOSEPH BRYAN, of Ahihama. 

BENJ. OGLE TAYLOR. Esq., Washington City. 

R. H. WILLIAMSON, Esq., ''' 

W. G. FREliMAN, Esq., " 

JOS. H. BRADLEY, Esq., " 

L. A. WHIITELEY, Esq., of Maryland, Secretary. 

Headquarters of the Committee, 357 D street, between Dth and 10th streets, Washing 
ton, D. C. 



Headqcarteks National Executive Cojimittee Constitutional Union Partt, 

Washington, July 10, 1860. 
At a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Constitutional Union party, 
held at their headquarters, in the city of Washington, this 10th of July, 18C0, the fol- 
lowing resolution was unanimously adopted, to wit : 

Resolved, That, as a weekly campaign paper, The Union Guard has been started in this 
city, at the solicitation of the National Executive Committee of the Constitutional Union 
party, to be conducted by men of experience, ability, and discretion, who are zealous in 
their devotion to the cause of the Union party, and sincere in their desire to promote 
the election of Bell and Everett, meets the entire approval of this committee, aud we 
heartily commend it to the friends of our cause and our candidates as a reliable cam- 
p.aign paper and central organ of the party, and a sta,unch and unwavering defender 
and advocate of the Union, the Constitution, and the cnforcemcntof the laws, and of the 
Union party nominees. We would, therefore, respectfully urge our friends in all the 
States to use their active efforts, without delay, to extend the circulation of the " Union 
Guard," if possible, into every county, and township, and precinct in every State of the 
Confederacy. 

Bv order of the Committee : 

L. A. "WHITELEY, Secretary. 



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